


Perfect Little Accident

by SolariaLunar21



Series: The Tomlinson-Horan Verse [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Mpreg, POV Alternating, Past-Louis/Eleanor mentioned, Past-Miscarriage mentioned, Perrie/Zayn is really only mentioned, Really there's maybe six paragraphs of angst in this whole thing, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-06
Updated: 2013-12-06
Packaged: 2018-01-03 15:13:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1071955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolariaLunar21/pseuds/SolariaLunar21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Follow Louis and Niall as they navigate pregnancy, touring around North America, while also figuring out what exactly they mean to each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perfect Little Accident

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this since October, mostly tweaking here and there for the last month so the North American tour dates are not in line with what was released last week. Also this is my first One Direction fic and I'm hoping my characterization is okay, my usual beta isn't a fan so we mostly discussed the technical issues. 
> 
> And when you see this: *~* it means there's a POV shift between Louis and Niall. Anyways hopefully you like it!

It’s the end of June when he first starts to feel off. He grows tired quicker than usual and some days his whole torso just aches, especially in his lower belly. But he puts it down to the tour, he’s gotten sick before from their lifestyle on the road so he drinks more orange juice and water and tries to take more cat naps when he can. It’s not until the show in Milan that he takes notice; when Liam flicks his left nipple during _Live While We’re Young_. It’s payback after Louis sprayed him with silly string earlier in the show and it hurts more than it should.

That night on the tour bus after the show he retreats to his bunk quicker than usual and closes the curtain. He takes out his phone and looks at the date, then he lets out a breath and counts back to the beginning of May. The timeline adds up from his memories of being sixteen and scared out of his mind the last time these same symptoms cropped up. He runs a hand down his face and knows that he’s going to need to call in a favor or two when they get to the next city. Unconsciously, he lets his hand drift down towards his lower belly and presses down lightly. It feels tender to the touch just like he remembers from six years before. A test will just be a formality at this point, he thinks, but he needs a more visual confirmation than his own crazy theories.

They get to Dusseldorf midafternoon the next day and he’s glad for a few days off before they perform again for thousands of fans. He spends most of the day lying about in Liam’s hotel room playing FIFA with the other boy as Zayn Skype’s with Perrie in the background about wedding details. He knows Harry is visiting his cousin that lives in the area and that Niall is probably talking with his parents and brother. That night though, when he’s left Liam’s room for his own, he flops back on his bed and scrolls through his phone for the contact labeled “The Inferior Lou ;)” and presses call.

“It’s your day off please don’t tell me you have a hair emergency,” Lou says when she answers the phone.

“No…but I kind of need a favor,” he states down the phone.

“What did you do now?”

“What makes you think I did anything?”

“Because you usually have.”

“Look I just I need you to go buy me something that I can’t be seen buying,” he informs her and winces because that doesn’t exactly sound good.

“If you say you need lube, Louis, I’m going to come down to your room and strangle you.”

“No it’s not lube…I—fuck, can you get me a pregnancy test?” he asks, his heart thudding in his chest and he stutters over the word pregnancy because it’s the first time he’s really put a name to what he thinks is wrong with him.

“Louis…” she sounds scared for him on the other end of the line and he doesn’t want to hear what she has to say.

“Look you can – fuck – you can lecture or whatever later, I just…can you get me one?”

 “Yeah, I’ll be at your room in an hour,” she tells him.

 “Thanks Lou.”

“You’re welcome sweetie,” she hangs up then and he throws his phone face down on his bed.

He pulls out his laptop and decides to watch whatever he left in his computer last, which turns out to be a disc from season six of Friends. Rachel is just serving up the trifle when he hears a knock on his door and he gets up to answer it. Lou stands on the other side, a white paper bag in one hand and a tense look on her face.

“Thanks,” he says when she offers it to him.

He steps aside and sweeps his arm in an offer for her to enter the room. She takes him up on it and he closes the door behind her as he sits back down on his bed and she stands hands on her hips staring down at him.

“Well? Are you going to explain why you need one of those?”

“Think the answer would be obvious, went and had myself a shag with a bloke.”

“Louis, you know what I mean.”

“It just happened, we used a condom but I stopped using birth control a while ago since I was with El and, well, she hasn’t got a dick to knock me up with now does she?”

“And you’re not going to tell me who.”

“No, and really thanks for this but I can take it from here,” he says lifting the bag and he can see the war on her face to fight him on staying. She must see something that says he doesn’t want her to stay for this, so she nods and gathers him in a hug before patting his cheek and leaving the room.            

When the door clicks behind her he pulls the contents out of the bag and stares at the box. He turns it over and over in his hands but decides the longer he waits to actually take it the more terrifying the box will look. So he goes into the bathroom and follows the directions. He sets a timer on his phone for five minutes and slides down the wall opposite the sink as he waits.

When his phone beeps he takes a deep breath, then approaches the counter and picks the test up to glance at the result. In pixilated letters the word PREGNANT stares back at him and while he’s not surprised at the result it still feels like the world is stopping around him. All it really is is a confirmation of what he’s suspected from the moment he felt the first twinges in his abdomen. There’s so much shit he needs to think about next, and lord knows he’ll have to deal with management at some point, but what is the most important thing now to him is that he needs to tell the other father. Scrolling through his phone to the right contact he clicks on it and waits as it rings before the tell-tale click meaning the recipient has picked up reaches his ears.

“Hey Tommo, you lazy fuck. Couldn’t walk three doors down to knock on my door?” he huffs out a laugh at the greeting but swears when it comes out a little wet sounding. It must translate because the voice comes down the line again. “Fuck, are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah just there’s something I need to tell you, can you come to mine?”

“Yeah of course. I’ll be right there.”

“See you in a few Nialler,” he responds, hanging up the phone and heading back out into the main area of his room to answer the door when Niall knocks a minute later.

“What’s going on Lou?” the Irish lad asks once Louis has answered the door and it’s closed behind him.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat this at all. I’m just going to come right out with it, okay?”

“Okay, wouldn’t expect any different from ya to be honest.”

“I’m pregnant.”

  
*~*

When Louis calls him he can tell something is bothering the older boy even though he says that he’s okay. Gathering up his room key and phone he doesn’t bother changing out of his worn out joggers and hoodie. It’s a short walk to Louis’ room but he still grows a bit worried about what Louis could need to tell him. He tries to think if anything has been weird with them lately but he can’t pinpoint anything. Things were fine the other night before the show when Louis sucked him off and when he returned the favor while their opening act was going on.

By the time he’s in Louis’ room he’s pretty sure Louis is just going to tell him that he’s back with Eleanor or something and that their whole band mates/friends-with-benefits thing is back to the off position. Which Niall is fine with, he was fine with it three years ago when Louis and Eleanor started dating and he’s fine now. He hasn’t been pining for Louis or wishing what they had was more, sure he cares for Louis and the sex is amazing but he’s not a ball of unrequited feelings and angst. So when Louis opens his mouth and drops the bomb that he’s pregnant on Niall he can honestly say he isn’t expecting it.

“Pregnant?” he reiterates.

“Yeah,” Louis says sinking down next to him on the edge of the bed.

“Wow, okay. I thought you were going to say you were back with El, to be honest.”

“Nope just good old fashioned up the duff,” the older boys states with a smirk.

“And it had to have been that first time right? That last night in South America?”

“That’s what I think.”

“So how long have you known?”

“Suspected it a few days ago but didn’t take a test until about a half hour ago. It’s still in the bathroom if you want to see it,” Louis informs him, gesturing to the still open door at the other end of the room.

“Look at a stick with Tommo piss on it? I think I’ll pass,” he says with a smile.

He knows deep down that he should be freaking out about this but it’s not like he didn’t know this was a possibility. Louis had told him back during the X-Factor before they slept together for the first time that he was a carrier. Even later he had told Niall in the dark of the night in whispers about being sixteen and a car crash and a miscarriage. They lapse into silence for a few minutes before Louis breaks it.

“I’m glad you aren’t freaking out because, I mean, you’re allowed. Just because you aren’t the one who’s, you know, actually knocked up…doesn’t mean you can’t.”

“I figure I’ll have my freak out when the kid is born and I have no idea what to do…that is if you want to keep it, because you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“It hadn’t crossed my mind not to,” Louis says with a shrug.

“So we’re gonna have a kid then?”

“Yeah Niall, we’re gonna have a kid.”

After that they don’t really talk much about the baby, they both decide to wait until their break in August to tell their families and the rest of the band. Niall calculates that Louis will be just past six months when they finish in North America, which means that they’ll have to cancel the Australian/New Zealand leg of the tour since its set for January (they didn’t really want to tour during the holidays and thankfully management relented) when Louis will be well into his eighth month of pregnancy. Niall feels bad for the fans but figures that management will reschedule the shows for a later date so that fans aren’t too disappointed. For now, though, he focuses on finishing the European leg of the tour and making sure Louis doesn’t run himself ragged.

 

*~*

After the initial talk things between him and Niall don’t really change all that much. He figures they’ll have to sit down and discuss at some point what they really want to do about them but for now it’s nice to still be what they have been. He isn’t surprised, though. It is Niall, after all, who is notorious for just going with the flow and taking what life gives him to turn it around into something good, no matter what it is. It even takes Louis almost two weeks to figure out that Niall is making sure that he gets enough fluids and proper food the other boy is doing it so subtly.

“So when did you and Niall start shagging again?” Liam asks him one night when it’s just the two of them up as the road moves under them, the hum of the bus soothing in the background. They have three more shows left until the European leg of the tour is over and Louis can’t wait.

“What makes you think we have?” Louis asks, but of course Liam just raises an eyebrow at him and Louis relents. “End of the South American leg.”

“That long?”

“What, no questions about my feelings or his?” Louis asks because he remembers the first time around how Liam was. The quiet disapproval and the way he lectured them when he caught them in the act the night they found out they were final three on the X-Factor.

“Not going to say I like it but nothing bad happened last time, plus it’s Niall and it’s you I figure you’ve got it figured out.”

“Where in the world did the old Liam go?” Louis questions with a smirk.

“You corrupted him, you prat,” Liam says throwing a piece of the popcorn he’s eating at Louis.

“Mission accomplished,” he replies and Liam laughs.

For one second Louis wants to blurt out everything to Liam about the baby. Even if really all there is to tell is that there is one but he refrains because he feels it would be rude to do without Niall. The topic ends there, though, and he’s glad because he does feel a bit guilty about not letting the band know. But even though they’re just as much his family as his biological one is, his mom deserves to know first.

“So I reckon when the tour is over we should move in together,” Niall says the following night, when it’s just the two of them in the green room before the show. Louis has his head in the Irish boy’s lap and Niall has been running his fingers through Louis’ hair while Louis texts his Mom about plans to visit when they get back in a week.

“Move in together? What made you think of that?”

“Just been thinking about it, makes sense though doesn’t it? I mean, we can’t exactly raise a baby together living in separate flats. I mean, well, we could but I don’t really want to.”

“I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, just hadn’t crossed my mind yet,” he says with a shrug.

“So…”

“So what?”

“What do you think about moving in together?”

“It’s a good idea,” he says with a shrug.

“A yes, then?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright then,” Niall says and Louis can see the quirk of his lips, so he leans up to kiss him quickly and smiles when he pulls away.

This thing with Niall has always been easy, since that very first time they got off together way back during judges houses late one night on the beach when everyone else was sleeping. They’d never put a name to it, just classified it as something that they did when they were both keyed up and wanted to get off. Then when he and Eleanor decided to be exclusive they ended except for a few Eleanor approved rolls in the sack when Louis needed to scratch an itch that she wasn’t able or there to.

When he and El broke up in February after realizing that while they loved each other still they weren’t _in_ love with each other anymore, he and Niall hadn’t picked up right where they left off. This time around with Niall, though, Louis knew even before he realized he was pregnant that it was different. It wasn’t a bad different at all, but it felt like it was more and since they had realized they were going to be parents the intimacy between them had transformed. It was all so effortless that Louis sometimes had a hard time believing that there wasn’t some deep dark secret ready to pop out, but then again it was Niall. And while Louis was prone to dramatics at the best of times, Niall had always had a way of making everything less complicated than it needed to be. Figures it would translate to them moving from casual friends-with-benefits to slightly-more-than-friends and into parents-to-be.

They finish the European leg of the tour three days later and spend a few days doing a bit more promotion for the new single before they get to go home. Louis is glad to have the next three weeks off before they fly to North America to start it all again. He spends one night at his flat in London before he heads home for a few days. When he gets there his mom is immediately all over him as well as his sisters. He loves being home with them and it’s nice to relax and forget for a few hours about the baby growing inside of him and the still looming news.

“How’re the rest of the boys?” his mom asks when it’s just the two of them that night sitting in the backyard.

“Good, same as always,” he says.

“I know we talk as much as we can but what about you? A mother worries about her baby,” she says and Louis is reminded of the news that he needs to tell her.

“I’m fine but um I do have some news,” he says looking down at his hands.

“Oh you do? Well what is it honey?” she asks and he has to take a deep breath because this isn’t the first time he’s had to tell his mother he’s pregnant. The circumstances are quite a bit different than the last time, he’s twenty-two for one and the other father didn’t abandon him when he found out. But still having to sit in front of his mother and tell her this news again is scary. “Out with it dear, goodness the last time you acted this nervous to tell me something, you told me you were pregnant,” she says with a laugh, but when he glances up at her she stops and her eyes widen. “Oh Louis…you’re pregnant?”

“Yeah,” he confirms with a nod of his head.

“How far along?”

“Ten weeks tomorrow. It, uh, obviously wasn’t planned,” he states with a shrug.

“Yes I can imagine,” she says and he can see she’s still a little stunned. He knows that she wants to ask who the other father is, but doesn’t want to upset him by implying he was sleeping around.

“It’s Niall’s, by the way.”

“Niall? Well…that one’s a bit of a surprise,” she shakes her head and he guesses she is trying to get used to the idea. “And he knows?” He nods in response. “Was it just a bit of fun, or are you two dating?”

“It’s kind of a long story but it started as a bit of fun that turned into dating, it was never anything complicated though. I mean at least for us, that is.”

“And he’s on board with this? With the baby?”

“Yeah,” he says and he takes his phone out to show his mom the text he received from Niall a couple of hours earlier. It read: _was looking on one of those pregnancy websites and it said the baby is like the size of a prune ! does this mean you’ve got to fart a lot tommo ?_

“Really, Louis?”

“It’s Niall what do you expect?” he states with a shrug but he glances fondly down at his phone anyway because he wouldn’t have the Irish boy any other way.

“You look happy,” his mom states and he stares at her and feels a smile spread across his face. Because sure the circumstances aren’t ideal and he and Niall aren’t in a love, a small voice in his head whispers _yet_ in his ear, but he is happy about this.

“I am, very cautiously excited and happy.”

“Well then congratulations sweetie, you be sure to tell Niall I said so when you two talk next,” she says giving him a hug and he sinks into it, smiling, with tears in his eyes and a weight lifted off his shoulders.

*~*

“Theo sure is getting big, he was barely pulling himself up on his own last time I saw him and now he’s almost walking,” he comments over dinner with his dad on his second night home.

“A lot can happen in a couple months with babies,” his dad replies and Niall nods.

He had been able to see his family when they played Croke Park at the end of May for three sold out shows but it still stunned him how much his nephew had grown in just a couple short months. It stuns him to think that this time next year he’s going to have his own son or daughter that will be learning to crawl around and wreak havoc. “It was nice of you to offer to babysit today, as well. I’m sure the tour has tired you out,” his dad continues and Niall takes the in, just goes for it and drops the bomb.

“Need all the practice I can get with babies now that Louis is pregnant and I’m the dad…well, other dad,” he says casually, shoveling more mashed potatoes in his mouth. He looks up at his dad after a few moments of silence to find him staring at him, a shocked look on his face. “Dad, you okay?” this seems to snap his dad out of his shock because he starts talking.

“Did you just say Louis, as in your band mate Louis, is pregnant and you’re the father?”

“Yeah,” he shrugs a little, knowing his nonchalance is probably unnerving his father even though on the inside Niall is freaking out.

“I wasn’t aware that you two were even dating.”

“We weren’t, but I mean, it sort of just happened and now Louis is pregnant and now we are.”

“Does your mother know?”

“No, was going to tell her when we have lunch tomorrow.”

“Well I hope you do it more delicately with her than you did with me,” his dad says and Niall finally drops his casual façade and looks his dad in the eye.

“Dad…are you angry?” he asks, voice small because he would hate if his dad was angry about this. He knows that his dad will be upset for a bit that he’s having a child out of wedlock (because no way is he ready to be married just yet) but he hopes his dad can at least be a bit happy about another grandchild to spoil.

“No, son I’m a bit…disappointed you two weren’t more careful but I’m not angry.”

“Thank god,” he says and his dad chuckles.

He has to answer more questions, some that make him squirm and others that make him think. At lunch the next day with his Mom there’s a bit more tears than with his dad but they seem to be happy ones, so when he leaves a couple of days later and heads back to London he feels a bit better to have told two of the most important people in his life about the baby.

“So my Mom helped me find a good doctor and I have an appointment on Tuesday,” Louis tells him the day after he gets back as they lounge around Niall’s bedroom in between rounds.

“They gonna do one of those ultrasound things?”

“Probably, I figured we could tell the boys afterwards? I mean, if everything is okay with the baby, that is,” Niall rolls onto his side from his belly to look at Louis and he can feel a frown on his face.

“Do you think something is wrong?” he asks reaching a hand out to stroke the small area of skin below Louis’ belly button that’s started to round slightly in the last few weeks. It just looks like Louis has gained a couple of pounds and isn’t seen at all if he’s clothed but since Niall knows what’s happening underneath Louis’ skin he’s looked for it.

“No I just, I haven’t had the best track record now have I?”

“Louis you were in a car accident, a bad one, and you were sixteen. Your body was under a lot of distress, it wasn’t your fault you miscarried,” Niall says reaching out to cup Louis’ cheek in his palm with the hand that isn’t resting on Louis’ belly.

“Fuck, I know. I’m just, you know, hormonal and pregnant and worried about what the guys will say.”

“Harry will probably ask who the godfather is, Zayn will be happy for us until he realizes you’ll be almost eight months pregnant at his wedding, and Liam will try not to give us a lecture on safe sex even though we used a condom but go out and buy us a ridiculous amount of superhero and Toy Story themed baby toys.”

“Or a lot of plaid flannel, he’s been weirdly attached to it since last summer. I think we need to perform an intervention,” Louis says, making Niall laugh because it’s true. It seems that Liam hardly wears anything anymore without some sort of plaid especially when they’re performing.

“Like when we banned Harry from buying anymore bandanas when we found out he had three drawers full of them,” he chuckles, remembering the look on Harry’s face when he stumbled across the articles of clothing when he spent the night once back in January and went to where Harry kept his joggers, only to find a drawer full of bandanas in their place.

“Have to find out if he kept his promise one of these days, plan a sneak drawer attack,” Louis mumbles into Niall’s neck from where he’s drifted closer and has started to plant small kisses against the expanse of skin there.

Niall moans a little and tilts his head so Louis can have more room to work with and chuckles when Louis reaches a hand out to flick his nipple and he feels the other boys smile against his neck. This prompts Niall to roll them over, hands going to Louis’ sides, Louis’ laughter bringing out his own and he wishes he could stop time for this one perfect moment.

*~*

By the time Tuesday rolls around Louis is anxious as he and Niall enter the office building where his appointment is located. It’s normal looking from the outside and is the home to many different businesses. For all the couple of pap’s that followed them know, they’re there to meet with the Architecture firm located on the second floor. When they reach the elevator, though, Louis presses the button for floor four where Dr. Jennifer Martin’s offices are located.

“Nervous?” Niall asks him when the doors close.

“A little,” he admits and he smiles when Niall takes his hand and squeezes it.

The doors open again a few moments later and they follow the signs down the hall towards a waiting room. Louis gives his name to the girl at the desk and accepts the stack of papers they have for him to fill out. He was thorough in his research when he looked for a doctor and knew that Dr. Martin’s practice was run ethically and used by many other people looking to be treated discreetly during those first few months of pregnancy before the news broke to the public.

Even so he’s glad that he and Niall have one of the first appointments of the day so there aren’t many other people. There are only two other couples and a girl that looks close to her due date by herself in the waiting room. Neither couple pays them any mind but the girl stares at them for a moment before blushing and going back to her magazine, obviously recognizing them. Louis doesn’t worry about her though and focuses on the papers in front of them filling in all the information that he can. He has to ask Niall a few questions about his medical history to fill it all in but he’s done soon enough and brings it up to desk again and hands it to receptionist.

“Shouldn’t be long now,” he says when he sits back down next to Niall, who rests a hand on his knee.

“Me mum texted. Said she hopes we know she expects ultrasound pictures in her e-mail inbox by the end of the day,” Niall says a few minutes later, looking up from his phone.

“Anything for Grandma Horan,” Louis replies with a chuckle, remembering the phone call he’d received from Maura after Niall had told her, demanding to know every little detail about how Louis was feeling and what he was eating. Niall starts talking quietly then about the latest string of incoherent texts from Zayn about wedding planning and both startle a little when Louis’ named is called.

They follow the nurse who introduces herself as Sarah back to an exam room where she takes Louis’ vitals as well as his weight before informing them that Dr. Martin would be in to see them soon.

“Do you think she’s going to make you wear one of those gown things?” Niall asks as he spins on the chair next to the exam table that Louis is sitting on.

“Probably, she’s going to have to do an internal exam,” Louis informs him.

“Internal?”

“You know check that my internal cervix hasn’t separated at all from the birth canal,” he rattles off, to which Niall raises his eyebrows.

“Oh I didn’t know that was a thing that could happen.”

“Guess so. They checked it last time when I went in for exams.”

“Is it awkward?” Louis just gives Niall a look and the other boy blushes. “Right…stupid question.”

Just then the door to the exam room opens and a woman in her late thirties enters with a kind smile on her face and Louis’ file in her hand.

“Hello I’m Dr. Martin, you two must be Louis and Niall,” she says extending her hand. Both he and Niall shake it before she opens Louis’ file to discuss with them, “Alright so it says here, Louis, that you’re eleven weeks along and this is your first visit with us, yes?”

“Yeah, we just got back from touring last week,” he says, blushing because he knows most people visit earlier than this.

“Well no need to be worried, male pregnancies are usually harder to detect so most of my male patients don’t make it in here until around the eleventh week just like you,” she says, which puts Louis a bit more at ease. They go over a bit more information that Louis filled out, with Niall chiming in when questions are asked about some of his own medical information, before she pauses and he knows what she’s going to ask. “Now it says that you had a miscarriage six years ago, as a result from a car accident correct?”

“Yes, can that cause complications?”

“If you were older and had a history of miscarriages, then yes. Considering your age I’m not too worried but there might be some residual damage to your internal cervix that has gone undetected,” she informs him. She then asks him to change into the paper gown and he does so behind a divider at the other end of the room.

“Do you want me to leave the room for this part?” Niall asks him in a murmur as he changes.

“No it’s not like you haven’t seen me in awkward situations before,” he replies.

And it is awkward; he feels exposed as Dr. Martin has him put his legs in stirrups and inserts two very cold medical lube covered fingers inside of him. He focuses’ on Niall’s hand in his though and the low humming he can hear from the other boy and snorts softly when he realizes that the younger boy is humming _Rock Me._ Soon Dr. Martin is done with her exam and he’s able to change back into his normal clothes.

“Everything is perfectly healthy internally, there’s no residual damage from your miscarriage six years ago which I’m sure both of you are happy to hear,” she says once he’s back in his regular clothes. “Now I’m sure you’re both ready to see the little one so Louis if you would lay back for me please I can get the ultrasound ready,” Louis smiles, remembering this part and the awe he felt the first time around when he heard his baby’s heartbeat. Back then it was his mother in the chair next to him and now it’s Niall gripping his hand as they both wait anxiously as Dr. Martin pulls the machine over.

“Now for the fun part,” he whispers to Niall who squeezes his hand and chuckles.

“Alright Louis, lift up your shirt for me and this will be a little cold,” she informs him but he’s ready when she squirts the cold gel on his slightly rounder belly and places the transducer on his skin and starts to move it around. Soon the room is filled with the soft _thump-thump_ sounds of a heartbeat and Louis takes the moment to glance at Niall who is slack jawed and his blue eyes are bright with unshed tears.

“Fuck, that’s the most beautiful sound I think I’ve ever heard,” the Irish boy whispers, making Louis smile.

“Yeah it is, isn’t it,” he replies.

“That’s our baby’s heartbeat, we’re _hearing_ our baby for the first time, that’s…fuck, that’s crazy Tommo.”

“You can see your baby, too, if you look right here,” Dr. Martin says and Louis turns his head towards the monitor and where she’s pointing.

“Oh, wow, it actually looks like a baby,” Niall breathes next to him.

“Yeah it does,” Louis agrees eyes not leaving the screen as Dr. Martin presses some buttons and keeps moving the transducer around his stomach all the while their baby wiggles and moves around on the screen. It’s weird for Louis to see the baby moving around even though he can’t feel it yet, he never got far enough along the last time since the miscarriage happened in his fifteenth week.

“We’re really having a baby aren’t we, Lou?” Niall asks a few minutes later when Dr. Martin has left the room for a few minutes to give them some privacy as they stare at the frozen image of their child on the ultrasound machine.

“Crazy isn’t it? That’s growing inside of me right now. Niall, in just over six months we’re going to have a little boy or girl who is going to rely on us for the rest of his or her life. It’s surreal,” he muses.

Up until now the idea that he’s pregnant has been sort of an abstract thing; he’s known it and has felt the morning sickness more than a few times in the past few weeks because of it; but now here with Niall having heard the heartbeat and seen the ultrasound makes it all that more real.

When Dr. Miller returns she gives Louis his prescription for his prenatal vitamins as well as informs him she would like to see him one more time before they go back on tour the following week. She also says she wants Louis to fax over the dates they have free while on the North American leg and where so she can try and work out with some of her colleagues in the States appointments for him to make sure everything is running smoothly. They thank her and leave with a pile of ultrasound pictures clutched between them as well as a DVD of the ultrasound that Louis knows Niall is going to label when they get home.  

“I assume you’ve got it all planned out how you want to tell the guys?” Niall asks when they enter Louis’ flat after having stopped at the pharmacy for his prescription.

“Yeah, texted them yesterday saying we should have a movie night at mine tonight, figured we could slip the DVD in the player before they get here,” Louis states as he walks into the kitchen and gets out the cheese, butter, and bread for a cheese toastie. He doesn’t bother asking Niall and goes about making four of them so they each have two.

“Oy, why are you doing all the cooking? Making me feel like a bad baby daddy, not offering to make you food!” Niall jokes, coming up behind Louis who sinks back when arms wrap around his waist.

“Did you seriously just refer to yourself as my baby daddy un-ironically?”

“Possibly,” Niall replies and Louis shivers when the younger boy nips at his ear.

“You are utterly ridiculous, Nialler,” he states as he finishes their lunch, turns the stove top off and gestures for Niall to get two plates. The rest of the day passes quickly and soon Louis’ flat is filled with the rest of the band, joking and laughing as he finishes grabbing snacks from the kitchen and bringing them into the living room.

“So, what exactly are we watching tonight? Because I’m in the mood for something funny,” Harry questions, leaning forward to grab a handful of grapes from the bag he brought with him.

“As long as it’s not wedding related I’m good,” Zayn pipes up.

“Aww, is Zaynie getting sick of wedding planning?” Louis asks, leaning over and pinching his friend’s cheek, cackling when Zayn pushes his hand away.

“Hey you would be too if you had to sit and listen to your future mother-in-law go on about flowers for three hours this afternoon. I almost want to fly Perrie out while we’re in Vegas and just do it there.” Louis must make a face at the idea because Zayn continues, “Get that look off your face, Louis, I’m not having a tacky Vegas wedding.”

“I’m sure we could find you a classy 24-hour wedding chapel, maybe find one where they have a young Elvis impersonator back before he gained all the weight and started wearing jump suits,” Niall chimes in on Louis’ other side.

“I don’t think a classy 24-hour wedding chapel even exists, Niall,” Liam remarks from his spot on the floor in front of the coffee table.

“Right. Well, all this wedding talk is good and wonderful but I do have a movie I think we’ll all quite enjoy to start us off with,” Louis interrupts when he notices that Niall is about to retaliate.

He goes about turning on the television, then sets the DVD to start playing and waits with a bit of baited breath for the grainy black and white image to fill the screen. It does moments later as well as the sound of the baby’s heartbeat and he waits for the other three to react. He isn’t disappointed when Liam pipes up after a few moments.

“Louis…what kind of movie is this?”

“Pretty sure it’s a sonogram not a movie Li,” Zayn observes.

“Then why are we watching a sonogram?” Liam inquires instead.

“Because, lads, meet the newest member of One Direction, Baby Tomlinson-Horan greeting the world in February 2015,” Louis answers.

“Hey why is your last name first we didn’t discuss that,” Niall asks next to him as the rest of their band mates stare at them with slack jawed expressions.

“I’m the one whose eggo is preggo, Niall, and I’m older so therefore my last name first,” he replies poking Niall in the side.

“I think I’m going crazy because I’m pretty sure you just told us that Niall knocked you up,” Harry drawls, the first to react to the news.

“That’s because I did, Young Harold,” Louis says, leaning over to pat the youngest band member on the head.

“Well I’d say I’ve got godfather in the bag on this one then boys, don’t even try and make your own case,” Harry says to the other two who are still staring at both Louis and Niall like they’ve just told them they’ve decided to quit the band and join the circus.

“Did you say February?” Zayn finally interjects.

“Yup, due date’s set for the tenth,” Louis answers.

“So you’re going to be…”

“Pregnant at your wedding? Yup, almost eight months; I’ll be big as a house,” Louis smirks in answer because he does kind of find it amusing how much this will drive Zayn nuts.

They were all given a good smack down talking to just two weeks before by Perrie about how they were going to custom make the bands tuxes so they better not gain too much weight during the holiday season. Louis and Niall had both tried not to burst into laughter the whole time.

“Perrie is going to kill you Louis,” Zayn claims but Louis can see a smile tugging at the edges of his lips and knows that he’s finding the situation slightly comical as well.

“Nah she’ll probably kill Niall since he’s the one that got Louis in the family way,” Harry joins in with a giggle.

So far Liam is the only one that hasn’t said anything which worries Louis. For all that Liam has loosened up over the years and continuously proclaims he’s no longer ‘Mr. Sensible’, Louis knows that deep down Liam is still Daddy Direction. He doesn’t want Liam to be angry, he was okay when he found out Louis and Niall were shagging again so Louis hopes he’s okay with this as well.

“Liam? You haven’t said anything,” Niall says.

“I guess I’m just trying to process it, I just I mean…you two um…” Liam trails off and blushes and Louis can read between the lines.

“I think Liam’s trying to ask if we’ve been using condoms without sounding like a twat. Which, yes, we used a condom, but they don’t always work.”

“So does this mean you two aren’t just shagging anymore? Or did I stick my foot in it and you two haven’t discussed that yet?” Liam implores with a wince.

“Nah it’s a bit more than shagging now, isn’t it Nialler? Think it has been since that time after the first show at Croke Park, don’t you?”

“Sounds about right to me,” Niall agrees nodding. Liam looks between them then before a huge smile splits across his face and he’s up from his spot on the floor, hugging them both.

“This really is great news you guys,” he says pulling back.

“Yeah congrats you guys; hope you know we’re going to spoil the kid rotten,” Zayn informs them, giving both their own hugs. Louis shouldn’t be surprised when Harry jumps on top of Zayn and sneaks a hand between trying to grope around for Louis’ belly.

“Oy, Harry there’s nothing there yet. I’m only eleven weeks along!” he exclaims, batting it away.

“As the baby’s godfather and your former roommate I do believe I’m given a free pass on belly touching,” Harry replies with a dimpled smile.

“When there’s a belly to touch have at it but there’s nothing there yet, also we never said you were going to be the baby’s godfather,” he retaliates, still batting away Harry’s grabby hands. Of course he’s lying about the belly part, but Harry doesn’t need to know that and right now it’s nice only having Niall be the one to touch his small yet still there baby bump.

“Have you guys talked about breaking the news to management yet?” Liam asks much later, when the other three have passed out in various areas of the living room.

Harry and Zayn are curled together on the large chair while Niall is stretched out on the main couch. Louis migrated to the floor once Niall drifted off and he and Liam have been talking quietly as the title menu to _Cars_ plays in the background.

“Yeah figured we’d break the news when we have that meeting on Friday, it’s not exactly going to be a pleasant one now is it? I mean, we’re going to have to cancel the Australian leg of the tour or at least postpone it for a few months. I can’t fly after I’m seven months and there is no way that I’m going to give birth in Australia or tour when I’m ready to pop.”

“We’ll stick behind you two no matter what, you know that right?”

“Of course we do, there’s nothing in our contracts that forbids us from being in a relationship or from me being pregnant though, I made sure my lawyer went through that part back when we first signed.”

“The fans are going to go nuts when you two come out you know.” Which, of course Louis knows.

He’s aware of the fact that while small, there’s a section out there who ‘ship’ him and Niall together. It used to be a joke amongst them all which ‘ship’ could get the most ‘shippers’ but after everything with ‘Larry Stylinson’ got a bit too much they cut back on it.

“We know, Niall says he’s a bit scared of all those Larry shippers coming after him with pitchforks,” he answers.

“I don’t know the Narry shippers have gotten quite strong lately, says something about Harry though doesn’t it?” Liam giggles; Louis flicks the other boy’s nose in retaliation but does find it funny. They’re silent for a while and eventually Louis drifts off into sleep warm and happy.

*~*

 “Was it just me or was that quite tense in there?” Niall hears Harry ask on Friday as they pile into the van after their meeting with management.

 “Nope not just you,” Niall answers, because it’s the truth. 

While their management aren’t tyrants that control their every move, like a lot fans seem to think, they still weren’t completely happy with the news that Louis was pregnant. They hadn’t seemed to care that he and Louis are in a relationship but the fact that the Australian leg of the tour has to be canceled doesn’t please them. Niall is glad for the fact that he had his lawyer look over his contract again the other day to make sure legal action couldn’t be taken against him or Louis due to the pregnancy.

Thankfully there was a medical clause built in that stated that if they weren’t physically fit or able to perform and parts of tour had to be canceled then they could not be held legally responsible. Niall was pretty sure that management only ever thought it would be needed if one of them had gotten a really bad case of the flu but pregnancy still fit the criteria.

“Well at least management knows now, that’s one less variable for us to worry about,” Louis interjects from his spot next to Niall. Thankfully the pregnant boy looks better than this morning, when Niall woke up to find him with his head in the toilet. If looks could kill Niall would be six feet under right now from the one Louis had given him when he’d asked if he was okay. Needless to say Niall isn’t exactly looking forward to Louis going into labor already.

“What are you planning on doing about tour, Lou? You can’t exactly hide a bump as easily as a woman can; the fans will notice something’s up by at least the end of September,” Zayn asks.

“You heard them just now, we come out with the baby news when we want they won’t stop us but we have to agree to do an interview about it with someone professional once we do,” Louis answers as he leans down and places his head on Niall’s shoulder, yawning. Niall glances down at Louis’ beanie covered head and moves his hand up to scratch at the base of his skull like he knows Louis likes.

“Ugh stop being adorable you prats,” Harry calls from the row behind them.

“We would do this all the time before we got together you twat,” Louis yells back, “plus you didn’t say anything last week when Liam and Zayn were spooning on your sofa.”

“That’s because Liam and Zayn aren’t shagging and having a baby together, mate,” Harry volleys back. Niall, for his part, rolls his eyes as they banter back and forth; soon Harry starts saying that he and Louis need to fill out a contract on how often they are allowed to be adorable.

Liam’s voice joins the fray but Niall isn’t paying attention, instead sneaking his hand under Louis’ jumper to rub it over the small swell of Louis’ belly. He loves that he’s the only one so far that even knows that Louis has a baby bump. It’s like his and Louis’ little secret, especially since Niall bought some of that cocoa butter stuff over the weekend and started rubbing it into Louis’ skin every night.

“What are you thinking about?” Louis whispers, causing Niall to jump a little in surprise. The other three haven’t seemed to notice and from what Niall can tell are now discussing theories for what’s going to happen next in some mystery show they all watch.

“Last night,” he responds.

“Oh which part? Lots of stuff happened last night.”

“The part where I woke up with you riding me and you came all over your belly, quite liked that bit,” he murmurs, leaning over to nip at Louis’ ear.

“I don’t know, I’m partial to the part before that where I got to fuck you into the mattress,” Niall feels Louis’ head turn then and tilts his neck as the other boy pulls aside his shirt to start sucking a love bite into his skin.

“Hey lovebirds keep it in your pants up there we’re almost back,” Zayn says.

Niall feels a smack on the back of his head and turns to glare at Zayn, but agrees that he doesn’t really want to get too excited in front the rest of the band. Soon they pull up to the building where he and Zayn both have flats and all pile out of the van to head on inside. They’ve all taken to relaxing at Niall’s after meetings with management and he’s glad that after the tense situation they were all in just an hour ago that they aren’t separating just yet.

A couple hours and four pizzas later, Niall finds himself in his guest bedroom sitting on the floor and messing around with his guitar quietly. He can hear Louis and Liam playing FIFA in the living room and knows Harry is curled up on his favorite chair taking a cat nap. He’s not quite sure where Zayn is, but Niall wandered off on his own about a half hour ago and last he saw the other boy was on the balcony having a smoke.

"What’re you doing in here?” he turns his head to find Zayn standing in the doorway and gestures him in.

“Just wanted a little bit of quiet, plus I realized I’ve never really spent time in here; thought I’d get a jump start since I’m probably going to spend a lot of sleepless nights trying to put the baby to sleep since we decided to make this the nursery,” Niall answers as Zayn sits down next to him.

“So Louis’ moving in here then?”

“Yeah but we’re thinking of getting a house when the baby is a little older since this place isn’t exactly where you would picture raising a kid.”

They lapse into a comfortable silence, one built from many more afternoons and nights spent just like this between the two of them over the past four years. Niall has always liked that he can just sit and be with Zayn without the silence feeling awkward or stilted.

“How come you never mentioned you two were shagging again?” Zayn asks after a while and Niall knows this has been on the other boy’s mind from the way he tries to be nonchalant about it.

“Didn’t really think that it was that much of a secret to be honest,” he says with a shrug.

“Just found it odd, didn’t even know you two were doing your thing again and then Louis is telling us he’s pregnant and you’re the dad.” Niall realizes then that he might’ve been a bit of twat in this because he knows that Liam talked with Louis about it and Harry had brought it up when they went to play golf on one of their days off during the UK leg. But he hadn’t really thought about Zayn, he just had figured Liam would’ve said something to him.

“Guess I was a bit of an arse on that, wasn’t I?”

“A bit, but Louis could’ve said something too, and I’ve been a bit preoccupied with the wedding so I guess we’re both at fault,” Zayn shrugs and knocks his shoulder against Niall’s, the small gesture eases the guilt in his stomach and they decide to join the rest in the living room.

*~*

They kick off the North American leg of the tour in LA, deciding to work east across the country instead of west like the Take Me Home tour the previous summer. Liam’s twenty-first birthday is on their first day off on tour and they decide to celebrate it the good ol’ American way by getting him incredibly drunk. Louis for his part is quite put out that he can’t partake in the drinking but finds it much more amusing to be the only sober one in a room full of their crew and friends that they flew out to celebrate the occasion with Liam.

 “You are a godsend,” Louis proclaims to Caroline as he slips on the new pair of black jeans that he has for the show that night three days after Liam’s birthday.

She somehow was able to find a pair with an elastic band on the inside so they work like sweatpants and don’t constrict around his waist and bite into his skin like his other pants were doing. Now in his fifteenth week it’s starting to get obvious that he’s pregnant, he’s taken to wearing looser shirts in plain black or in some sort of crazy black and white pattern to conceal the growing bump.

“Not like I haven’t been there before, love,” she replies.

“Ah yes, but still this feels a million times better.” He wraps her in a hug before running off to the green room where he finds Harry and Zayn, who have already changed into their stage clothes, trying to throw popcorn into each other’s mouths.

“How’re the new jeans?” Zayn asks with a smirk.

“Fantastic, you prat, thanks for asking,” he replies, stealing a handful of popcorn from the bowl in Harry’s lap.

“You steal my popcorn and yet you still won’t let me touch your bump, that’s just rude Lou,” Harry pouts.

“It’s not like you can feel the baby kicking yet, Hazza.”

“You let Niall feel it all the time though!”

“He’s my boyfriend and the one who knocked me up he gets a free pass,” Louis retorts, pinching where he knows one of Harry’s extra nipples is.

“Hey, if I pinch you back is milk going to come out?”

“Harry that’s gross you don’t ask people that,” Zayn exclaims pulling a face at his band mate.

“It’s _Louis,_ Zayn, like he really cares.”

“Oy, I could care but no, milk is not going to come out if you pinch my nipples.”

“Do I even want to know what you were discussing before I came into the room?” Liam inquires from the doorway where he’s standing with Niall, both ready for the show.

“No,” Zayn replies dryly.

“I wanted to know if milk would come out of Lou’s nipples if I pinched them and Zayn thought that was gross to ask,” Harry informs him, completely ignoring Zayn.

“Why would you even ask that in the first place Harry?”

“Just something I’ve always wanted to know.” The rest roll their eyes because it’s quite typical of Harry to want to know something like that.

“If we could refrain from talking about my pregnant boyfriend’s nipples and whether or not milk’s going to come out of them when pinched, I’d like that,” Niall declares, making Louis smile when the Irish boy wraps his arms around his neck loosely from behind.

He closes his eyes when Niall places a kiss to his temple and revels in how simple and easy this has been. Sure, being pregnant on tour isn’t a piece of cake, but besides the few days during break that he had morning sickness the pregnancy hasn’t caused any problems so far. A flash startles him, though, and he finds Liam smiling sheepishly with his phone in his hand.

“What? I can’t find you two acting all couple-y photo worthy? Gotta show the little Sprogling how loved up their daddies were on each other someday,” he states as the others all roll their eyes at him. Liam has always been the one to document small moments between the five of them that he wants to remember since the very beginning, something that Louis is sure would surprise the fans. So he finds it no different that Liam would want to document this as well.

“You and your pictures, Payno,” Niall says fondly behind him and soon the moment is forgotten when Paul lets them know they have five minutes until they need to be at the stage and ready.

Niall’s twenty-first birthday is a little over a week later, and unlike Liam’s, doesn’t fall on one of their days off. They have a show that night in what Louis believes is Utah, but tour is already starting to blur together so he can’t be completely sure on that one. Niall has always been the one who knows where they are, especially in the States. The band brings a cake out near the end of the show, despite the fact that they had their own birthday lunch and cake earlier that day, along with Niall’s mom and dad who flew in to meet them.

“Alright everyone, how about we all sing a big happy birthday to our lovely Niall?” Liam asks as the fans erupt into screams. Louis figures many of them are remembering the last time Niall had a birthday during tour and they had a food fight with the cake, immortalized thanks to YouTube.

“On the count of three,” Harry chimes in next and soon the whole venue is singing ‘Happy Birthday’ along with them. As Niall leans over to blow out the candles Louis can’t resist and leans into his ear and whispers into it.

“No need to wish for birthday sex tonight, Nialler, that’s a sure thing, been thinking about it all day.” Niall, for his part, doesn’t let on that Louis whispered anything untoward and blows out his candles with a smile. Louis bounces away after flicking at the plastic tiara that Niall has donned all evening. Harry gave it to him as a gag gift before the show; it’s bright green and says “Irish Princess”.

“I bet we’re all wondering what Niall wished for now, aren’t we?” he asks into the microphone. The fans respond with screams and he turns to Niall with a wink as the Irish boy goes to answer.

“Ahh, but it won’t come true if I tell you now, would it? And I’d quite like for this one to come true this year, pretty special one.” The last bit is directed more towards Louis than the fans and he smiles because he can only guess that Niall’s wish probably had something to do with the baby, “Now, I don’t know about you guys but I can’t let this cake go to waste,” he continues before he reaches a hand out, grabs some icing and proceeds to rub it down Harry’s cheek who’s next to him. The fans start screaming even louder as Harry retaliates and Zayn joins in by taking a chunk out of the cake and throwing it at Liam, who ducks behind Louis but still gets hit.

Louis turns and laughs at the state of Liam’s hair, where most of the cake has ended up. He grabs a chunk out and shoves it in his mouth before he jumps when he feels cold icing being streaked across his neck by Niall. Out of the corner of his eye he can see Harry has taken Zayn down with him and he knows that the fans are expecting a One Direction Pile when Liam joins them. If there’s one thing Louis misses, it’s being able to rough house on stage like the other three are, seeing as how Niall has abandoned the fight and is instead just eating the cake in typical Niall fashion.

Instead of joining the other three he raises his microphone to his lips and addresses the crowd joking and poking fun at his band mates, commentating like it’s a real wrestling match. Once he’s declared Zayn the ‘winner’ of the battle, it’s turned over to Niall as he thanks the fans for the birthday wishes and introduces the last song of the evening as _Best Song Ever._ Almost a week after Niall’s birthday, it’s Harry that finds out about the leaked photo first. They’re all still awake after the show, lounging on the couches in the bus and talking and joking around or browsing on their phones like Harry is.

“Lou, you and Niall need to see this,” Harry says, handing his phone over to Louis. On the screen is an article with a picture of him and Niall from Niall’s birthday.

Normally this wouldn’t cause alarm but the fact that he and Niall look quite cozy in the photo does. In the picture Niall is sitting on a hotel couch wearing his “Irish Princess” tiara with Louis between his legs on the floor, and he’s leaned over kissing Louis on the cheek, arms wrapped around Louis and hands resting on his belly. Louis for his part is wearing a hoodie so his bump isn’t visible but one hand is loosely wrapped around Niall’s left wrist and the other entwined with Niall’s right hand as he smiles wide for the camera. The picture was taken at some point during the afternoon festivities but he can’t remember by whom.

“Well…looks like we might need to come out sooner than we thought,” Louis states as Niall leans over his shoulder to look at the picture as well.

“What why?” Liam asks and Louis shows him the phone, Zayn leaning over to look as well.

“The article is pretty generic, says that our reps haven’t even been contacted but just that the photo found its way onto Twitter and Tumblr this afternoon. States that it was taken earlier this week during a private celebration of Niall’s birthday,” Zayn reads aloud.

“So what now?” Harry asks as the other three look at him and Niall. Louis turns to Niall who shrugs a little as they communicate silently.

“Well, I mean, we planned on making the announcement in a Twitcam at the end of the month on our day off but I guess we can move it up to the one we have in a couple of days while in Denver,” Niall answers for them both as Louis nods. He knows that it would be better to just get on the Twitcam now before more speculation and gossip can fuel the fire but he feels like they deserve at least a day to get a grasp on the situation.

“Whatever you decide, we’re behind you both one hundred percent, you know that right?” Liam asks.

“Of course we do, Lee-yum,” Louis affirms with a smile, drawing out the other boy’s name slightly.

The next day is almost unbearable for them with the amount of paps that surround the venue, all wanting to catch a glimpse of him and Niall. It’s not like they haven’t gotten used to the press being around but they both know that this is probably the biggest so called scandal that has hit One Direction since they began. They of course have to talk with management on the phone who affirm that they will allow Louis and Niall to come out on their own terms and that they won’t release any statements until they do. Most major entertainment news sites have picked up the story and Louis tries not to read many but happens across one for E!News that starts with the bold headline:

**A One Direction Romance? Are Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan Dating?**

_That is the question that is on everyone’s lips today after a photo leaked of the two band members looking quite cozy together during Horan’s twenty-first birthday earlier this week. The photo posted with the article was leaked late afternoon yesterday and is said to have come from a crew member’s phone. While both Horan and Tomlinson have been quiet since the photo leaked, representatives of the band have been contacted by E!News but have since given no comments. The only member of One Direction who has been heard from was Harry Styles this morning who tweeted:_

**_@Harry_Styles:_ Bit of a rude wake-up call this morning by @Real_Liam_Payne.**

_Sounds to us like his band mates are still up to their usual tricks, despite the rumors! Stay tuned here as this story develops._

Louis laughs at the mention of Harry’s tweet due to the fact that Liam had thrown water on the youngest member of the band when Harry wouldn’t wake up and they were running late. He and Niall had agreed they would announce the Twitcam an hour before they started it so that there wasn’t too much build up, but that news could get out that they were doing one. During the show that night Louis spots more than a couple of signs directed towards he and Niall with things like “We Support Nouis” and “Nouis=LOVE” on them. Anytime he and Niall are near each other during the show the fans roar even louder which boosts him with a bit of confidence that this won’t be a fatal blow to the band.

“Today’s the big day, are you ready?” Harry asks, plopping down next to Louis on the couch in the hotel room he and Niall are sharing.

“As I’ll ever be; it’s not like we can keep it a secret for much longer anyways, even without the picture,” he answers, gesturing to his visible baby bump. It’s not large but he’s not able to really pass it off as having had a big lunch anymore either. Hoodies thankfully still conceal it but his regular t-shirt wardrobe doesn’t.

“And yet you still won’t let me feel it!”

“Why are you so obsessed with wanting to feel my belly?”

“Because that’s my future godchild in there and I’d like to bond a little with him or her so they know that I’m going to be their favorite uncle.”

“You can’t just force my unborn child to like you best via belly touching Harry,” Louis says, flicking a stray curl away from the other boy’s eyes.

“I can try. C’mon Lou, please! You let Niall’s mum touch it while she was here, why can’t I?” Harry pouts, making his green eyes that much larger and sticking his lip out. Louis hates when Harry does this because the younger lad knows he always caves.

“If I let you touch my belly will you shut up about it already?” he finally allows because really there’s only so much begging from Harry Styles that one can take before they give in.

“Yes! I swear I’ll shut up about your baby bump.”

“Fine, but only over the shirt,” Louis relents as Harry smiles at him and tentatively reaches a hand over to place it on the roundest part of Louis’ belly. Harry’s large hand moves back and forth over the curve of him gently as his eyes widen in slight awe.

“Wow Lou, I mean it doesn’t really feel different from normal, but…there’s an actual person living inside of you right now, isn’t that nuts?”

“Considering I’m the one with the baby in him, yeah, it’s a bit nuts,” he answers.

“Finally gave in I see?” Louis turns his head to where Niall is entering the room with Liam and Zayn trailing behind him.

“He gave me the eyes Nialler, you know I’m a sucker for those even without all the crazy pregnancy hormones,” he pouts up at his boyfriend who leans over to seal their lips together quickly in greeting.

“Was wondering how long it would take you to break those out,” Zayn admits as he sits on the floor at Harry’s feet and opens the box of Cheez-It’s he brought with him.

“So what time are you two planning on doing the Twitcam anyways?” Liam asks.

“Around 7:30 so it’s still early enough that once we get done we can get some rest and the media outlets have the rest of the night to do whatever they want with the information,” Louis replies, leaning back against Niall’s chest as the Irish boy settles behind him on the couch. Harry, for his part, has finally taken his hand away from Louis’ belly and has joined Zayn on the floor as he flicks through the TV channels for something to watch.

“Well we’re all staying in tonight so you’ll have us around afterwards,” Liam informs him.

“Thanks Payno,” he says, ruffling the Wolverhampton boy’s hair.

“It’s going to be weird, though, having everyone know now. It’s kind of like been our secret, the One Direction baby,” Zayn contributes to the conversation.

“I’m just glad that it wasn’t obvious in the picture that was released, I like having something up my sleeve to share they aren’t expecting,” Louis admits.

He’s always loved creating a bit of chaos and is quite excited to see the world explode a little at the double whammy news of confirmation that he and Niall are indeed a couple and the fact that he’s pregnant.

“Are you sure you’re ready?” Niall asks as they sit in front of the Irish boy’s laptop. They’ve got the channel ready to stream and a tweet at the ready with a link to be sent out through Niall’s twitter. Niall had sent a tweet an hour earlier which read:

**@NiallOfficial: Twitcam in one hour with @Louis_Tomlinson ! you guys aren’t gnna wnna miss it !**

It had been favorited and retweeted thousands of times since it was sent out and now they were closing in on 7:30 when they agreed to start.

“Yeah, I’m sure, just wait one minute okay? I kind of want to just have one more minute with just us,” Louis says and Niall leans in and rests their foreheads together. He closes his eyes and feels safe in that moment and strong like he can face anything because he has Niall with him. He can’t say that he’s in love yet but he knows for sure he’s well on his way there. Louis leans forward and seals their lips together one more time before he pulls back and nods.

“Alright here we go,” Niall says pressing the button that sends out the link to the live stream. Louis’ phone vibrates with a text from Harry letting them know that the camera is working and that he and Niall are live.

“Hello everybody, it’s just myself and Niall here tonight we know these are usually more Liam’s thing but we thought we’d try our hand at it, didn’t we Niall?” Louis asks turning to his boyfriend.

“That we did; we know there are a lot of rumors going around out there right now and Louis and I both felt that it was best if we addressed them ourselves un-edited,” Niall agrees as Louis notices the message board is already filling up with questions and comments.

“For those wondering, yes, we are aware that there is a photo circulating of us on the internet from Niall’s birthday. We would first just like to say that we do not place any blame on the crew member whose phone this photo was on and that no one has been fired from our staff as was stated in quite a few publications online today.”

“We also know that this photo has sparked rumors that Louis and I are in a romantic relationship, part of the reason for this Twitcam is to speak about these rumors and once and for all confirm that yes Louis and I are in fact dating,” Niall says and they both watch as they fans explode with comments most of which Louis can see say something along the lines of the fact that they all knew it.

“We know that this announcement is a bit anticlimactic due to the photo that was leaked but we felt that instead of just letting everyone speculate that we would take this opportunity and come out and be proud of our relationship,” Louis looks to Niall then as the other boy nods his head slightly. They had agreed that Niall would handle confirming their relationship and Louis would be the one to announce his pregnancy. “Like Niall said though, there is another reason that we wanted to do this Twitcam tonight. We would also like to announce that the One Direction family is growing; I’m four months pregnant with mine and Niall’s first child.”

They both watch as the viewer count jumps by the thousands in just seconds and the chat room explodes with comments and fans freaking out. While most seem to be sending out comments along the lines of “OMG” and “A BABY?!?!?!??!!” there are a fair few that are asking if Louis is indeed pranking them as a late April Fool’s joke.

“It seems that some of you think that Louis and I have decided to play a prank on you but we really truly aren’t, Louis can you show the good people the evidence?”

“I do believe I can,” Louis says as he stands so his lower half is visible and he turns to the side. He’s wearing a plain white t-shirt that shows the outline of his bump but to prove it even further he lifts his shirt so the smooth round tan expanse of his skin is revealed to the public at large.

“Ta-Da! Baby Tomlinson-Horan!” Niall states next to him, waving his hand in the air like he’s just done a magic trick. Louis takes the opportunity to roll his shirt back over his bump and sit back down next to Niall leaning into the younger boy slightly as he does. Thanks to their tech guy who runs the Twitter questions during the shows they have another feed to the side that picks out questions from among the millions of comments so they can address them.

“We know that this is quite shocking news for everyone so we’re going to take this time to answer some questions for all of you, we will be as honest as we possibly can,” Louis informs them as he scours the list for a question to catch his attention. “The first question that I see coming in a lot is: how long have we been dating? Niall do you want to take this one?”

“That I will, we’ve been dating just over four months, so no for those wondering out there Louis did not cheat on Eleanor with me as I see is being asked some as well.”

“While this Twitcam is not focused on my previous relationship I will say that there was no infidelity on either mine or Eleanor’s parts and that as I’ve stated before we broke up mutually due to the fact we just grew a part. But that is all I will talk about on that topic for it does not have to do with my relationship with Niall or our child.”

“Katie B. is asking how long we’ve known about the baby, I’d say you were around six or seven weeks when we found out yeah?”

“Sounds about right just before the show in Dusseldorf, we were very happily surprised by the news to say the least. A lot of you are asking how the other lads took the news and they were quite shocked but happy and supportive of us,” Louis acknowledges. They both answer a couple more questions; some silly, not even having to do with the pregnancy news or about their relationship before they bid the fans goodnight.

“And now we wait and watch as the world explodes,” Niall comments as they turn off the live stream. Both of their phones buzz then with Twitter notifications as Louis opens his feed to find that all three boys have tweeted one right after the other in support:

**@Harry_Styles: Super excited that everyone knows about #BabyNouis now! I’ve already shot gunned godfather!**

**@zaynmalik: let’s get #babynouis trending, can’t wait to meet the little terror!**

**@Real_Liam_Payne: Big congratsssss again to two of my best mates! #BabyNouis is going to be spoilddddd by its three favrite uncles!**

He smiles down at his phone as Niall does the same. It doesn’t surprise them when the other three join them a few minutes later and they stay up playing video games and eating junk food before all passing out in the early hours of the morning. The next morning is thankfully interview free and they all relax before leaving for the venue. It’s not a surprise when they get down to the lobby and find that the paparazzi has swarmed the area and is being kept back by security as well as the local police. Instead of his usual hoodie that he’s taken to donning when he needs to be in public, Louis is wearing a long sleeved shirt and his favorite jean jacket. His bump is slightly concealed but still visible and he reaches over for Niall’s hand for support.

The younger lad grips it tight in his as the other three flank them; because while Louis knows that this is all a part of what they do he’s still nervous about the public reaction. He’s glad that he has Niall in this with him, especially when Patrick their security guard pushes the door open and the noise from outside invades. Liam is in the lead as Niall follows behind and Louis walks close behind him with Harry and Zayn on either side of him. He hears his name and Niall’s being yelled from all angles and bright flashes of cameras make him blink rapidly as they walk quickly into the van that waits for them.

*~*

 “Are you sure you’re okay?” Niall asks his boyfriend for probably the thousandth time since they got to the venue.

The crowd at the hotel was slightly larger than usual but when they got to the venue they had to sit in the van for close to an hour before they could even get out due to the amount of press that’s there. While Louis was calm the whole time and spent most of it talking and joking around like usual, Niall was aware that when they were finally able to get into the venue that the sheer amount of people there had shocked him slightly.

“Yes, really and truly stop worrying,” Louis answers and Niall can tell from his tone that he’s slightly annoyed so he decides to let the subject go.

“So how much do you bet fans will start playing a spot the bump game during the shows?” he asks as he pulls Louis into his side, reaching over and smoothing a hand over said bump and leaving it there to sit.

He knows the band jokes that he’s slightly obsessed with touching Louis’ bump but he can’t quite help himself; that’s his baby in there and his incredibly fit boyfriend that’s carrying him or her. Louis never seems to mind though, he always relaxes into Niall’s hold and smiles sweetly at him and more often than not Niall can get a lapful of horny Louis just from softly stroking the ever expanding skin.

“I’m sure they’ve already got pictures floating around on Tumblr from the past few weeks where they’re all analyzing them and circling my belly,” Louis answers him.

It’s nice, Niall thinks, to have just the two of them cuddling like this as the other three go off and do whatever. He’s almost 100% sure that it’s intentional though, most days the boys allow Louis and Niall a good hour to themselves before the shows. Harry likes to call it ‘Nouis Family Bonding Time’ whenever they do.

“Well I don’t blame them. It’s a cute belly,” Niall observes, patting the bump with his hand as he does.

“You just like people knowing you knocked me up.”

“Maybe,” he smiles as Louis rolls his eyes but leans up to connect their lips anyway.

Niall pulls him in closer as Louis goes to deepen the kiss and breaks the kiss for a moment to lie back on the couch and pull Louis on top of him. He’s glad they’re still in their street clothes as their lips meet again and Louis’ tongue traces the seam of his lips before slipping inside as their hips meet. Niall can feel Louis getting hard, although not much seems to get Louis hard now-a-days; Niall had literally only stroked over Louis’ ear with his fingertips the other day and a tent formed in the older boy’s sweatpants. He knows that it’s all the hormones in Louis body going into overdrive but he’s taking advantage of it whenever he can.

“Do you think we have time for me to blow you?” he asks, pulling back from the kiss as Louis lazily thrusts against him.

“Probably, doesn’t take much to get me to come lately, you know that,” Louis replies and Niall flips them, being careful of Louis’ belly as he kisses down his boyfriend’s neck and sucks a quite obvious mark at the base of his throat.

He pushes Louis’ shirt up and trails kisses all the way down the curve of his belly until he reaches Louis’ jeans. The fabric is strained over Louis’ erection and Niall smiles a bit before he takes pity on the pregnant boy and goes about undoing the button and zipper before tugging his jeans and briefs down enough so Louis’ cock slaps against his belly. “Fuck get on with it Niall you tease,” Louis moans as Niall blows air on the tip before taking it in his mouth.

Louis’ hands tangle in his hair as he starts to suck and bob his head. The rest that he can’t fit he wraps a hand around and moves it in time with his mouth. He pays extra attention to the skin just below the head where he knows Louis is the most sensitive. It pays off as Louis bucks and moans tightening his hold in Niall’s hair.

“Like that do you?” Niall pulls off to ask.

“You know that you fucker, get your mouth back on my dick I was close.” Niall does as he’s told, laughing slightly, the vibrations causing Louis to moan again above him and more pre-cum to leak onto his tongue.

After a few more bobs and Niall flicking his tongue more than once over Louis’ slit, the older boy arches his back and comes, flooding Niall’s mouth as he does. “Mmm, fuck Niall, that was exactly what I needed,” Louis says after Niall has tucked him back in his jeans and leaned up to kiss him.

“Glad to be of service,” Niall says with a wink.

“What about you though?”

“You can fuck me tonight, I’ll be good through the show,” he promises as Louis leans up to connect their lips again.

“Enough snogging, we already know you two like shagging,” Zayn’s voice says behind them. Niall reluctantly pulls his lips away from Louis and looks towards the doorway where the Bradford native is standing with a plate of food in his hands.

“But how can you resist this pretty face Z?” Louis asks as Niall smiles cheekily at Zayn who rolls his eyes.

“Better be glad Lou does our hair right before we go on because you two have serious snogging hair,” Zayn adds as they get up from the couch and follow him back towards where they have the food set up.

“I think we should leave our hair just the way it is, don’t you Niall? Would give everyone quite a thrill.”

“Give the fans heart attacks, that’s for sure,” Niall replies as he grabs food.

He tries not to side-eye Louis’ plate next to him but can’t help it when the other boy takes ketchup and squirts it on his cucumbers. After a moment he decides it’s best not to say anything, just figures it’s the start of the weird food combinations he’ll be seeing for the next few months. Liam, on the other hand, it seems, can’t refrain from saying something when the three of them get to the table where the other two lads are.

“Is that ketchup on your cucumbers?”

“Yes…is that a problem Liam?”

“Nope, no problem,” the other boy replies but he keeps a skeptical look on his face as he eyes Louis’ plate warily.

“Were you two just shagging?” Harry asks.

“Caught ‘em snogging in the dressing room,” Zayn answers.

“Not soon enough. Niall turned into a vampire on Louis’ neck,” Harry points out and Niall looks at his handy work and smirks, satisfied that his love bite is visible against Louis’ tan skin.

“Not like we need to hide anything anymore, Niall can cover my whole neck with love bites if he wants I don’t mind, feels quite brilliant when he’s making ‘em,” Louis interjects as Harry makes a face at him due to the information and goes back to his food.

Niall is called away a few minutes later by a couple members of their stage crew to continue a game of football that they’ve all been playing since the start of the North American leg. So far his team is winning by three goals but that can change quite quickly with the way they play. Liam joins the few other spectators on the crew that have placed bets on the teams about a half hour later and afterwards they both head over to get into their stage clothes since it’s close to show time.

“So how does it feel really, being out to the world?” Liam asks as they get changed into their clothes.

“It feels nice, I mean we didn’t have to hide all that long but it’s a bit freeing, knowing that I don’t have to hide a part of myself anymore.”

“Have you talked about who you want to interview you two? I know management said you two get to pick who gets the really big professional exclusive.”

“Not yet, definitely not that woman from the Today show that keeps calling Louis, Liam though, that’s for sure,” Niall answers with a laugh as they both get bustled over to Lou to get their hair fixed. She tuts at the state of Niall’s, giving him a glare but he doesn’t mind as he grins back at her.

“You two are going to be the death of me with all this sex hair,” she says.

“Hey I’ll have you know that we weren’t shagging, just a bit of snogging.”

“Potato, patato same difference with you two love.”

His hair doesn’t take that long and soon he’s bouncing off to get mic’d up and then goes to where they’ll be entering the stage. Zayn and Louis are both there already talking and laughing as they wait. Niall figures Harry is around somewhere making it hard for their security as he dodges them. Louis surprises him though, instead of his usual looser black t-shirt he’s been donning for the start of the show he’s thrown on one of Niall’s shirts that stretches over his bump.

“Showing off now are you?” he asks when he joins them.

“If you’ve got it, flaunt it babe,” Louis replies with a wink as Zayn gags slightly in jest at them as Niall leans forward for a quick kiss. Liam joins them soon as well as a sweaty Harry being dragged by their stage manager the former with a large grin on his face and the latter looking disgruntled.

“You’re supposed to wait until we’re on stage to start sweating Hazza,” Zayn says with a chuckle.

“Just thought I’d get a jump start this evening, was quite fun I played hide and seek with Lux! Just think in a few years we’ll have enough kids here to have a quite epic game of hide and seek before the shows,” Harry states, bouncing on his toes, grin still plastered on his face. They get their one minute warning before they get in their usual huddle and complete their usual ritual before they’re out on stage. They open the show with _Midnight Memories_ before segueing into their usual hello speeches.

“You know I can’t help but notice…Louis you look different tonight. Did you do something to your hair?” Liam asks after their fourth song of the night.

“Nope, felt like mixing my wardrobe up a bit though, nicked my shirt off of Niall’s rack. I reckon I look quite smashing,” Louis answers as the fans scream, Niall for his part smiles brightly as Liam turns to him next.

“Niall, do you think Louis looks smashing this evening?”

“That I do, he wears the shirt better than I do that’s for sure,” Niall replies as the fans scream even louder and he makes his way over to Louis who beams at him. He silently asks permission before he leans in lightning fast and kisses Louis to the screams of the crowd.

“No snogging on stage you two, got enough of that before the show,” Harry calls as Niall laughs running away when Louis leans over to pinch him in the side.

“Well I just can’t help it Hazza, our Louis is quite a wonderful kisser.”

“You know all this talk of kissing makes me want to sing the next song how about you Liam?” Zayn asks throwing his arm around Liam’s shoulders.

“Yes I do believe that the topic of kissing is the perfect lead up because this is…Kiss You,” Liam yells as the track starts and Zayn starts singing the crowd roaring in response. The rest of the show passes in a bit of a blur to Niall and before he knows it they’re back on the tour bus that met them at the venue earlier that afternoon.

“Twenty pounds says that a video of you two kissing is already up on YouTube,” Zayn says as they all gather in the living area of the tour bus.

“Knowing our fans I don’t think I want to take that bet,” Niall replies as he takes a bite of the chicken Caesar wrap their bus driver had ready and waiting for them from a deli they all fell in love with last time they were in Denver.

“Good thing because you’d be out twenty pounds,” Liam states turning his phone so they can all see the video entitled NOUIS KISS ONSTAGE DENVER COLORADO!!!!! The video already has thousands of hits and Niall is sure that by the end of the night the video will be up on every entertainment news site there is.

Later that night when the others have all headed to their bunks to sleep or to talk to their families Niall and Louis are on the large bed they have at the back of the bus. Louis is passed out though snoring softly, using Niall’s chest as a pillow so really it’s only Niall left awake. He’s on his Twitter feed reading his replies, most are quite positive but there are some negative that he’s not paying attention to. Niall learned early on that all that mattered were the positive comments and not the negative so he’s always done his best to let it roll off his back. One fan though has linked Niall to an article on E!NEWS.com and usually he doesn’t click on links to websites with articles about them but E! has always been pretty respectful towards them. The article is originally marked for earlier that same day but has been updated with information within the past three hours.

 **A One Direction Baby Bombshell!** Reads the headline when he clicks through before he reads on:

_It’s the baby bump seen ‘round the world! Last night, just two days after a photo leaked of One Direction members Niall Horan, 21, and Louis Tomlinson, 22, that sparked rumors that the two are in a romantic relationship Horan tweeted the two would be doing a Twitcam that the fans wouldn’t want to miss._

_During the Twitcam Horan took to quickly stating: “…part of the reason for this Twitcam is to speak about these rumors and once and for all confirm that yes Louis and I are in fact dating.”_

_Tomlinson then continued and dropped quite the bombshell: that he’s currently four months pregnant with his and Niall’s first child!_

_When fans seemed to think the couple was pranking them Tomlinson went on to stand and pull up his shirt showing off his baby bump (screencap above). Shortly after the Twitcam ended their One Direction band members: Zayn Malik, 21, Liam Payne, 21, and Harry Styles, 20, all tweeted their support and excitement of their band-mates’ pending parenthood. #BabyNouis was trending within the hour of the announcement on Twitter around the world. We at E! send our congratulations to Louis and Niall as well on this exciting news. Stay tuned here for all coverage on Baby Nouis!_

**_UPDATE!_ **

_Just hours after announcing his pregnancy, Louis Tomlinson showed off his small but visible baby bump as the band left their hotel in Denver to head to the venue for their show tonight. The 22 year old singer held tight to boyfriend and band mate, Niall Horan’s hand as he wore a form fitting red Henley under a jean jacket; a departure from the hoodies that he’s taken to wearing in public to hide his growing bump. Watch the YouTube clip below from tonight’s show to see Louis and Niall share a sweet kiss after Louis admits to stealing a t-shirt of Niall’s to wear on stage. Looks like these two aren’t going to be shy in their affections!_

The last bit of the article is the video that Liam found hours earlier and Niall doesn’t bother watching it as he yawns and rubs at his eyes. Louis snuffles closer to him and Niall smiles fondly down at the pregnant lad. His boyfriend looks so peaceful and Niall is glad that Louis is a deep sleeper when he goes to take a picture and the flash on his phone momentarily lights up the room. Staring at the photo he decides to post it to Instagram and cause a bit of a riot before he goes to sleep. He does so captioning the photo: **Time t join Lou in dreamland !** before turning his phone off and snuggling down, letting the sounds of Louis’ breathing and the wheels under him lull him to sleep.

*~*

He wakes up two weeks after the announcement of his pregnancy and blinks down at his stomach in confusion. When he fell asleep the night before his t-shirt felt quite a bit looser on his belly but now the fabric is stretching out more than before. Untangling himself from Niall he walks out into the kitchen area where he finds Harry and Liam both eating cereal and talking lowly as to not disturb anyone else.

“Morning,” he says around a yawn as he reaches into the cabinet for his own bowl and grabs a box of Lucky Charms and the milk.

“Morning Lou, you’re looking a bit rounder this morning,” Harry observes.

“You notice it too? So it’s not just me then?”

“Nope, seems Sprogling decided to grow during the night,” Harry answers after draining his bowl of milk.

“Please stop referring to my unborn child as Sprogling, seriously Liam I’m going to kill you for getting everyone to call my baby that,” Louis plops down in the chair next to Liam and pinches the other lad in the side.

“Just be glad I haven’t tweeted that nickname yet or else you would have fan signs at all the shows about it,” quips Liam.

The three soon move to the couches and play a few rounds of FIFA on the portable TV that they bought for the tour bus. It always baffles Louis how Harry can be so bad at regular football but when you get him in video game mode he’s almost as good as Louis himself is. Niall and Zayn both stumble out of bed around noon when they still have about an hour until they reach the venue their playing that night. Niall for his part settles against Louis side still half asleep as he brings a hand over to rub Louis’ belly.

“Oh…that’s bigger,” the Irish lad muses after a few moments.

“Yup seems our child decided a growth spurt was in order while we slept last night,” Louis agrees looking down at his belly.

“Can I Instagram it? Give the fans a little thrill?” Niall asks, which Louis finds quite adorable about the other boy. While Louis doesn’t use his Instagram or tweet all that often anymore Niall has always kept up with it.

“Have at it babe,” Louis answers as Niall reaches into his pocket to grab his phone.

“Ohh are we taking photos of Louis for the fans?” Harry asks tearing himself away from the magazine he’s flipping through.

“Yes, gonna show the fans how Lou’ popped overnight,” Niall replies.

“Let me get in on it! I wanna pose with the Sprogling,” Harry crawls over the couch as Niall brings the phone up.

Louis stands and turns to the side and pulls an over exaggerated shocked face as Harry leans forward on the couch and does the same pointing at Louis’ belly a hand over his mouth. Niall laughs bright and bubbly before typing away and then showing them the picture and caption before he sends it out to the world. The photo depicts Louis with his bed head and sleep shirt stretched over his bump eyes wide and lips parted in an O as Harry leans forward curls falling in his wide shocked eyes a hand pointing straight to Louis’ bump. Niall’s captioned the picture with: **Look who’s seemed t pop up overnight ! #babynouis #19weeksdown.**

“Fans are gonna go crazy Nialler,” Louis informs him as Niall presses post.

The past two weeks since they came out have been a bit of a whirlwind but Louis is glad for the tour that allows them not to focus too much on what the press is saying. The press has died down a little over the past few days; Louis silently thanks the newest entertainment news scandal that’s hit the presses for it. He doesn’t know what it is but he’s pretty sure it involves the Kardashian’s in some way shape or form. Management though has sent he and Niall interview proposals that have been called into their publicists and says they have to choose one within the week so it can be set up. Louis doesn’t completely understand what the point of a formal interview is because they’ve come out and announced the pregnancy news but he has to go along with it anyways.

A week later finds Louis and Niall leaving the venue after sound check while in some city in Minnesota that Louis forgets the name of to go to his 20 week check-up that Dr. Martin has set up with a local doctor. Louis is excited because if all goes well and their baby cooperates they’ll be able to find out what they’re having.

“Good afternoon boys I’m Dr. Grahams, I believe we are here for our 20 week ultrasound yes?” says the doctor after Louis has gone through the check in process.

Dr. Grahams looks to be around Dr. Martin’s age and has a Scottish accent and a warm smile. Louis was worried that he wouldn’t feel comfortable with a random doctor but the Scottish woman is making him feel at ease.

“That’s correct, the halfway point,” Louis answers.

“Alright, now Dr. Martin faxed over your file and we also received the test results from the blood that you had drawn two days ago so before we get to the ultrasound I’d quickly like to go over that with you,” Dr. Grahams says looking over the information in her hands. Louis immediately feels his heart start to pound and only relaxes slightly when Niall grips his hand tightly in his.

“Is something wrong with Louis or the baby?” Niall asks before Dr. Grahams can continue.

“Not at this time, both Louis’ cholesterol as well as blood sugar came back in the healthy and normal ranges but I wanted to speak with both of you about how even though it’s okay now it can change quickly. I know that the both of you lead very busy lives and that you are currently touring but I want you to make sure that you keep the stress to a minimum. Louis you also need to make sure you pay extra attention to what your body is telling you. I want your pregnancy to continue being as healthy and successful as it has been so far and I want you to stay healthy as well,” Dr. Grahams lectures.

Louis sags in relief that the baby is okay as well as himself, he’s been trying his best to not give into his cravings for foods filled with starch and fats and is following the instructions Dr. Martin gave him as well as the bands nutritionist so he’s glad to hear he’s doing something right.

“The band has a nutritionist that I’ve been working with and Niall as well as the other boys always make sure I get enough rest,” Louis informs her beaming at Niall as he does.

“I’m glad to hear it, now how about we go about the internal exam and then we can find out what you two are having okay?”

Louis hops off the table and goes to change out of his street clothes and into the paper gown that’s been left for him. Just like the time before he feels awkward and exposed but he’s glad to have Niall there with him.

“Just think Lou soon we’ll get to know whether our little Sprogling is a boy or a girl,” his boyfriend whispers in his ear.

“Maybe once we do everyone will stop calling our baby Sprogling,” Louis pouts.

“Not gonna happen,” Niall retorts cheekily.

“Well everything looks healthy with your internal cervix Louis so go get changed back into your normal clothes and we can get to the fun part,” Dr. Grahams interrupts.

Louis follows her instructions glad to get out of the paper gown and back into his normal clothes. He gets back to the exam table and hops on before he reclines backwards and lifts his shirt up exposing his round belly.

“Oh wow, the baby looks so much bigger than last time,” Niall whispers next to him as Dr. Grahams starts the ultrasound.

“Considering I was only eleven weeks along then I’d sure hope so,” Louis quips sarcastically as Niall pinches his hand in retaliation.

Louis shoots his boyfriend a mock dirty look before staring back at the screen. Niall is of course right, the baby looks much bigger than last time and even more like a baby then before. Over the past few days Louis has felt slight movements but nothing major so it’s odd to watch the screen and see the baby wriggle around and feel some of the more aggressive movements inside.

“Alright boys I have a clear picture if you’re ready to know what you’re having,” Dr. Grahams says.

“Yes we have a bet to settle,” Louis answers. Harry had bet he and Niall that the baby was a girl and said that if it was a boy he’d do all the bus chores for two weeks. They had made the younger boy sign a written agreement that was overseen by Paul for their witness and everything.

“Congratulations it’s a boy!”

“A boy! Lou we’re having a little boy!” Niall exclaims next to him.

“I know I heard her too,” he says fondly not caring about their audience when Niall leans forward to kiss him enthusiastically.

When Niall pulls back Louis looks at his boyfriend’s wide open smile and with a jolt realizes just how in love with this boy he’s fallen in the past five months. Dr. Grahams gives them some ultrasound pictures on their way out and they smile giddily as Patrick helps them back to the car waiting to bring them back to the venue. On their way back they both call their respective parents to inform them that they’re getting a grandson.

“So?” Liam asks as soon as they join the other three in their dressing room.

“Looks like Harry’s got to do all the bus chores! It’s a boy!” Louis crows brandishing the ultrasound pictures for the other lads to look at, even if they can’t tell from the grainy black and white images if Louis is telling the truth.

“Do you have that in writing?” Harry asks, “because I’m not going to believe that until I hear it from a professional,” Louis pulls out his phone and opens his photo gallery and clicks on the newest edition. They were both expecting this so they asked Dr. Grahams to record herself saying that it was a boy and pointing it out on the ultrasound as well.

“Look’s legit to me Haz,” Zayn muses as Harry pouts.

“Why couldn’t you be a girl Sprogling?” Harry asks directing his voice towards Louis’ belly.

“Hey nothing wrong with a boy and now that we know that the baby is in fact a boy I demand we stop calling him Sprogling, I’m not giving birth to an amphibian,” Louis claims taking his phone back from Harry.

“Aww c’mon Lou you know deep down you love it,” Harry sing-songs with his trademark cheeky grin.

“I really, really don’t,” he states flatly.

“So are you gonna announce it or keep it a secret until he’s born?” Liam asks handing Louis the ultrasound pictures back.

“We talked about it in the car on the way back and we thought we could announce it tonight during the show,” Niall replies.

“You don’t want to wait at all? Keep it to yourselves for a bit?” Zayn asks.

“That does sound like a nice idea,” Louis agrees looking to Niall to see what he thinks.

“You’re the pregnant one, I’m fine with whatever but I agree it would be nice to just have us and our families know for a few days.”

“Our little secret,” Louis quips smiling at Niall who beams back at him.

They decide to wait until the show on Saturday to make the announcement and in the meantime revel in the fact that they’re having a baby boy. Thursday afternoon Louis takes a cat nap after sound check and wakes up to Niall whispering softly head next to Louis bump as he strokes over the round curve lightly. Instead of alerting Niall to the fact that he’s awake he feigns sleep and listens as Niall talks,

“…and your Uncle Zayn might come off a bit standoffish at first but he’s got one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know. He’s an amazing artist; he offered to paint us a mural for your room which of course we took him up on. They all can’t wait to meet you little guy but I don’t know if they’re as excited as me or your Daddy Louis. We both love you so much already, I didn’t think I could ever love something as much as I do performing but you’re proving me wrong. And can I tell you a little secret between you and me? I’m a little scared about being a good Dad too you, I’ve never really been around kids but…your Daddy Louis? He’s gonna be an amazing Dad anyone with eyes can tell you that, you lucked out with him little guy. Although so didn’t I, he’s quite amazing your Daddy Louis I didn’t ever think I would fall in love with him but he kind of makes it pretty easy, but that’s our secret as well I haven’t told him yet but I will soon.”

Louis feels his heart flip flop in his chest as Niall admits that he’s in love with him. A smile threatens to take over his face but he controls it and decides to ‘wake up’ before Niall continues. Niall’s secret admission has Louis floating on air the rest of the day. Knowing Niall loves him as well is one of the best feelings in the world and he can’t wait to tell Niall himself, this time hearing Niall tell him to his face. Just before they’re set to go on Louis smiles sweetly at Niall and kisses him before he pulls back and whispers in his ear.

“I love you,” Niall turns to him his eyes wide with surprise but the smile that stretches across his face is one Louis’ never seen before.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he confirms with a nod of his head.

“I love you too Lou,” Niall replies and it’s even better than Louis imagined it would be as he feels his own smile stretch across his face in return. That night he can barely keep his eyes off of Niall and every time he looks over he finds Niall looking right back and it makes his heart glow.

“What’s got into you?” Harry asks after the show.

“What are you talking about?”

“You haven’t stopped smiling all day and during the show you and Niall were like two love sick puppies.”

“I can’t smile for no reason?”

“You can but not this much, so spill what’s going on?”

“Nothing I just…you know told Niall I loved him before the show today and he said it back, it’s not a big deal,” he answers with a shrug trying to act nonchalant.

“So you two are right proper in love now then yeah?”

“Yeah I guess so,” he replies a smile stretching across his face as he does.

Just then Niall walks out from the bunks where he was talking with his brother on Facetime and when their eyes meet Louis can’t help but feel like his heart is bursting. This is the man he loves, the man who is the father of his baby, who he’s going to raise the most perfect little boy with and he’s so incredibly happy he can’t help but want to smile all the time.

“Greg and Theo say hello,” Niall informs him as he settles down next to Louis, “well Theo didn’t so much as say hello as scream very loudly but I took it as a hello,” Louis phone buzzes just then as he’s about to reply with a Twitter alert saying @Harry_Styles mentioned him in a tweet. Furrowing his brows he opens Twitter with apprehension and finds Harry’s newest tweet at the top of his feed.

**@Harry_Styles: Aww @Louis_Tomlinson’s in love! 3 guesses to who he’s looking at instagram.com/p/j78ulkP45L**

He clicks on the link to Harry’s Instagram account and finds a picture of himself from obviously just moments ago staring fondly and smiling at someone outside the picture’s frame. He wouldn’t mind the picture so much if the rest of him didn’t look like such a mess.

"Harry seriously? I look all frumpy,” Louis states.

“What I couldn’t resist,” Harry proclaims.

“I think you like quite beautiful,” Niall whispers in his ear pulling Louis closer to his side. Louis looks from the phone to Niall and his heart jumps with how sweet and fond Niall looks, blue eyes twinkling like he’s sharing a secret.

“You do?”

“Course I do,” Niall replies as Louis leans their foreheads together and closes his eyes. Like always Niall’s hand creeps down to rest on his belly making Louis melt even more into the other lads embrace.

It’s not until the next morning that he sees Harry’s second tweet linking to his Instagram again of a picture of Louis and Niall with their foreheads together smiling softly with Niall’s hand splayed almost protectively over his bump. It’s captioned with **#lovebirds #nouisfamilybonding** and has thousands of retweets and comments.

“Harry got you guys on Sugarscape,” Zayn informs Louis at the venue later turning his phone around so Louis can see the headline: **Harry Styles Almost Breaks Twitter with Adorable Nouis Pics!** The article is short but sweet and makes Louis smile.

_Fans were in for a treat last night on twitter when Harry Styles decided to tweet not just one but two adorable pics of his band mates Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan, who if you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard are in a relationship and expecting their first child together._

_The first features Louis staring at someone off camera looking quite smitten with the caption:_ **Aww @Louis_Tomlinson’s in love! 3 guesses to who he’s looking at** _and the second tweeted ten minutes later features both Tomlinson and Horan cuddling with Horan’s hand resting on Tomlinson’s baby bump quite protectively. An insider told Sugarscape, “They are absolutely head over heels for each other, Niall is constantly touching and stroking Louis’ belly and Louis glows whenever he does.” Click to the next page for all the adorable Nouis family pics, c’mon we know you want to!_

“I do believe Harry’s trying to find the best way to break the internet and is using Niall and me as his opportunity,” Louis claims with a laugh.

“Well he’s doing a good job so far, he apparently broke Tumblr last night although I think it was a combination of that and Kurt and Blaine getting married on Glee last night,” Zayn informs him.

“What we missed the Klaine wedding?” Louis exclaims, as Zayn nods his head. He and Zayn have never once spoken about it in interviews but they’re both a bit obsessed with Glee. It’s like their dirty little secret that only the other three know about and constantly tease them over.

“I’ve already got it downloaded for us to watch after the show tonight don’t worry,” Zayn replies and Louis hugs him in thanks before bouncing off to go bother Liam.

The next night they’re almost to the Twitter Questions portion of the show and Louis is vibrating in excitement. They decided that they would announce the news that the baby is a boy during this time and made sure that their tech guy, Cory knew to project a question that they could use as a jump off point for the announcement.

“Alright I think it’s time to take some Twitter Questions don’t you?” Niall asks as the crowd screams. “And our first question is,” they all turn to the giant screen and wait for the question to be displayed, “What has been some exciting news we’ve gotten recently? Oh I quite enjoy that question, we got some exciting news this week didn’t we Louis?”

“That we did Niall,” Louis confirms with a nod.

“Do you think we should share with everyone here the news?”

“I don’t know do you guys really want to know if Baby Nouis is a boy or a girl?” Louis asks and the crowd screams, he can even hear some sections yelling out yes among the din.

“I think they want to know Tommo,” Liam interjects once the screaming has calmed down a bit.“In that case Niall why don’t you tell the lovely audience the big news,” he suggests.

“I’m very happy to tell all of you that the bun in Louis’ oven is a boy!” Niall exclaims. The audience seems to roar at the news at being the first to know and Louis can bet that almost every person in there right now is tweeting about it.

“I don’t know if any of us can top that news,” Harry drawls before Niall reads out who sent the tweet and their seat number location.

They answer three more Twitter questions before moving on to the rest of the show. He takes to his Twitter after the show and sees most of his mentions are people congratulating he and Niall on the baby being a boy and he decides to send out a mass tweet in thanks. **Thanks everyone for the wonderful tweets! We’re both excited for our little boy to get here! #halfwaythere.**

Three days later he and Niall end up doing the interview they promised management with a woman from E!News. It goes well enough considering it’s the first interview they’ve done since they came out but Louis wishes that they could’ve had the other boys there as well. They’ve always done interviews better when all together no matter what the situation is.

At least Niall was with him because he can’t imagine what it would’ve been like having to do it by himself. They’re told it’s going to air later that week and get to approve the final edit to make sure nothing they said was taken out of context, which was the main reason they settled on E!News to conduct the interview.

“You know something the interviewer asked has me thinking,” Niall states later that night on the tour bus.

It’s just the two of them in the living space, Harry was in his bunk Skyping his sister, while Zayn slept, and Liam was in the back hanging out with Andy who had come for a visit the day before. Louis for his part is laying down a pillow supporting his lower back and his head in Niall’s lap as his boyfriend plays with his hair.

“About what?”

“Baby names, he can’t go without one forever.”

“I don’t know I think Baby Tomlinson-Horan has a nice ring to it don’t you?”

"Very funny, I’m serious we haven’t talked about it at all even when we didn’t know that we’re having a boy,” his boyfriend states flicking Louis on the nose, “have you thought of anything that you like?”

“I figured his first name would have Irish roots, I remember you always told us you want an Irish name for your kids, but I mean I haven’t thought too much more in depth than that,” he says gazing up through his fringe to stare into Niall’s bright blue eyes.

“You would really give our son an Irish name for me?”

“Of course I would, it’s important to you,” Louis responds, because really it’s quite a no-brainer, being Irish is a large part of Niall’s personal identity and what makes him who he is. Sure Louis being English is a big part of who he is as well but if you took that away it wouldn’t be as heartbreaking if someone took being Irish away from Niall.

“You make me really happy you know,” Niall whispers like it’s a secret. Louis for his part struggles a bit but sits back up so he can look at Niall properly.

“You make me really happy too, always have,” he states kissing Niall softly.

“So Irish names? I think I’ve got more than a few that I wouldn’t mind,” Niall murmurs between them once Louis pulls back.  

“Oh like what?”

“I’ve always liked Kieran or Declan for boys names.”

“Kieran is nice, not sure about Declan though, he doesn’t feel like a Declan,” Louis ponders smoothing his hands over his bump as he feels the baby move around. So far he hasn’t felt his unborn son kick yet but he’s felt increasing wiggles as the days go by.

“If you want really Irish I’ve always had a soft spot for Seamus as well,” Niall informs Louis with a cheeky smile.

“I’m not naming our son after a Harry Potter character.”

“Who says it would be after the Harry Potter character?” Niall asks but Louis just stares him down they both know the truth in this situation, “well then no suggesting Finn then.”

“I wasn’t going too,” Louis retorts, “besides that names a bit depressing now,” they’re both silent for a while and Louis takes to his phone and Googles Irish boy names because he doesn’t know that many. Sure he knows some but those are the really popular ones and he doesn’t want his son to have a name that’s too mainstream. Then again he also doesn’t want to name his son anything way out there like some celebrities like to do.

“Are you actually Googling Irish baby names right now?” Niall asks.

“Yes, what’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing,” Niall says quickly and Louis smirks to himself at how much Niall doesn’t want to piss Louis off.

Which isn’t completely possible, he can count on one hand the amount of times he’s been truly angry with Niall and on two with the rest of the lads in the band. So he just leans against Niall and scrolls down the lists of names before one seems to pop out at him. He rolls the name around in his head and smiles because it just feels right.

“What about Aedan? But spelled with an ‘e’ instead of an ‘i’,” Louis asks.

“Aedan that’s…that’s perfect Lou.”

“I thought so too, it just…it feels right. Like that’s who he is you know?”

“Aedan Tomlinson-Horan, has a nice ring to it doesn’t it?” Niall asks.

“Now all we need is a middle name,” Louis says as he lays back down and puts his head in Niall’s lap again.

“The right one will come to us, we’ve still got time,” Niall replies as he moves his hand to Louis bump and bends down to say, “hey little Aedan we can’t wait to meet you, but not too soon yeah? Still have a few more months get all nice and big and strong inside Daddy Louis,” Louis beams at his boyfriend as Niall kisses him before pulling back and sitting straight again. They both look up when Harry wonders in a few minutes later and plops down on the opposite couch.

“How’s Gemma?” Louis asks.

“Good, she’s got a new boyfriend she wants me to meet, hopefully this guy is better than the last jerk she dated,” Harry states.

“That tool who went around announcing to people he was dating _THE_ Harry Styles’ sister?” Niall asks.

“The one and the same.”

“That guy was a twat,” Louis says from his spot in Niall’s lap.

“You never met him Louis,” Harry states with laugh.

“Don’t have to meet him to know he’s a twat. You complained about him enough Hazza,” he replies.

“Anyways what have you two been up too? And don’t say sex Louis neither of you look particularly well shagged.”

“You take all my fun Harry,” Louis pouts tilting his head to look at the younger boy.

“That’s a lie and we both know it,” Harry replies leaning forward and tugging on Louis’ hair. He bats the other boys hand away, “as I was asking what were you two up too?”

“Not much, relaxing, deciding what to name the baby, watching some YouTube videos,” Niall answers with a shrug as Louis chuckles under his breath.

“Wait what did you say?”

“Watched some YouTube videos?” Niall asks innocently.

“No you prat you know what I mean.”

“Oh you mean that we named the baby?”

“Yes that, are you going to share or not?”

“You’re not allowed to tweet it or mention it in any interviews or tell anybody if we tell you Harold,” Louis insists because while he loves Harry he needs to make sure that he understands this isn’t something to tell the world about. He’d like to have something to keep to himself about the pregnancy until after Aedan is born.

“Yes I know I’m not an idiot, so c’mon tell me I wanna know!”

“We decided on Aedan but spelled with an ‘e’ instead of an ‘i’,” Louis replies showing Harry on his phone how they want it spelled so he can see what it will look like.

“No middle name?”

“Not yet, so what do you think?”

“I like it, it’s not out there crazy but it’s not too mainstream plus you aren’t spelling it the normal way so it’s a bit different there as well. I think it fits,” Harry answers, “now I’m going to go brag to Liam about how I know the baby’s name but he doesn’t.” Harry bounces off then towards the back of the bus and they can hear him as he yells loudly “I know something you don’t know.”

“And three, two, one,” Louis counts down just as Liam as well as Andy burst out from the back of the bus.

“You named the baby?” Liam asks with his trademark smile.

“Maybe,” Niall sing songs.

“C’mon you two fess up I want to know!”

“I don’t know if you deserve to know because of you he was known as Sprogling for the first five months of his existence,” Louis states.

“Louis c’mon you told Harry! He’s going to be insufferable if you don’t tell me.”

“Good choice!” Andy says and Louis turns to where he sees Niall smiling mischievously as he pulls away from where he must’ve whispered Aedan’s name in Andy’s ear.

“Did you just tell Andy? Seriously Niall?”

“What? He asked so very nicely Liam,” Niall replies batting his eyes up at the other boy.

“Ugh I can’t with you two! Just tell me or else I’m going to text both of your mothers about what I walked in on you two doing last week,” Liam threatens.

“Hey we said we wouldn’t talk about that! Our mother’s don’t need to know anything about our sex life,” Louis cries out.

“Oh I don’t know I think they would find it quite interesting how flexible you still are in your state Louis,” Liam giggles as he reaches for his phone.

“Fine you prat we decided on Aedan for a first name but spelled like this,” Louis states shoving his phone in Liam’s face before continuing, “but we aren’t sure about a middle name yet,” he finishes as Liam smiles.

“I really like that guys,” Liam informs them before he kneels so he’s level with Louis’ bump, he looks up silently to ask permission before he places his hand there, “so little guy your Daddies decided to name you Aedan huh? Well this is your Uncle Liam and I just want you to know that your Uncle Harry is not as cool as he thinks he is no matter what he tries to tell you,” Louis can’t help the smile that crosses his face. He finds it adorable when any of the boys address his bump and talk to Aedan. Of course Niall does it the most but Harry finds a few times each day to whisper ‘secrets’ to the baby while Liam and Zayn usually do it the least.

“Hey I can hear you Payne don’t try and brainwash that baby against me!” Harry calls from the back of the bus. Harry joins them again and the five of them end up watching a movie before they all head back to sleep, Andy taking Louis’ old bunk.

There’s two weeks left of tour when Louis’ finally feels Aedan kick for the first time. He’s twenty-three weeks pregnant and they’re in Tampa, Florida and it’s during _Little Things_ when he starts to feel it. It takes him a few moments to realize what’s going on but when he does he reaches over and grabs Niall’s hand not caring for the fact that it makes him stop playing the guitar. He’s glad that they’re sitting down and not standing so it’s easier for Louis to press Niall’s hand to his side right where Aedan’s been kicking since just after Louis finished his solo.

Louis watches Niall’s face pass into confusion before a bright smile spreads across his lips and he meets Louis eyes. He can see the silent question Niall is asking and Louis nods his head quickly. Louis barely has time to close his eyes before Niall’s placing a kiss on his lips in front of the whole crowd. The screams in the arena would be deafening if they didn’t have their ears in but thankfully they do.

“It seems the song got to our lovebirds tonight, we surely hope you don’t mind,” Harry quips into the microphone to the roar of the crowd.

“Sorry for the brief interruption, our little boy decided to kick for the first time I had to share with Niall,” Louis informs the crowd and he can hear as the stadium almost as one lets out a loud ‘awww’. He smiles as Niall leans over and kisses his cheek before he pulls back and addresses the audience.

“Think we got a football player to follow in his Daddy’s footsteps hanging around in their,” the crowd screams and Louis smiles because he can’t help it. He doesn’t care that this is being tweeted about and filmed and going to be on gossip blogs and Tumblrs around the world. All he cares about is that Niall is smiling back at him and they’re having a baby.

*~*

“Niall please wake up,” Niall jerks awake to the feel of someone shaking him and a voice that sounds scared and filled with tears. It takes him a moment to connect the dots he sits up quickly and turns to Louis who is sitting next to him tears streaking down his face.

“Lou? Babe what’s going on what’s wrong?” he asks frantically cupping his boyfriends face in his hands.

“Something feels wrong Niall, something feels wrong with Aedan,” Louis sobs out and Niall sits up even more alert then one of his hands going to down to join Louis’ on his bump.

“Okay Lou I’m going to call Paul okay? And he’ll get someone to take us to the hospital, and you two you’re both going to be fine, I swear it. Our little boy will be fine,” Niall whispers fiercely because he has to believe that. He can’t let himself think that something is really horribly wrong; Louis is only twenty-five weeks pregnant it’s too soon for Aedan.

“I can’t lose him Niall I just can’t.”

“You won’t babe okay? I’m calling Paul now,” Niall says the phone already at his ear and ringing.

“This better not be another pregnancy craving call Niall,” Paul says when he answers a few moments later.

“Something’s wrong with baby Paul, we need to get to the hospital,” he spits out.

“Alright, just stay calm I’ll get a car to come to the back and pick you two up and I’ll get you from your room, you two get ready,” the older man informs him before he hangs up.

“Paul’s getting us a car okay Lou? We need to get some clothes on,” Niall says.

He’s able to get a hoodie on Louis as well as get the other boy pull on some sweatpants over his boxers before Paul gets there. Niall hopes with all he has that the paparazzi aren’t at the back of the hotel and that there aren’t a lot of fans. They just had the last show of tour the night before and are in New York City for a couple of days doing promotions for their new single that they just released the week before.

Paul ushers them quickly out into the hallway and towards the elevator when he gets there and Niall’s heart breaks into a million little pieces when Louis whimpers in his arms. Niall pulls Louis hood up so that it covers his face as they descend and turns Louis face into his neck just in case anyone is around. He doesn’t need the whole world seeing how just upset and distressed Louis looks right now.

“There’s a few fans out the back but the paps are in the front of the building, so you two will be safe,” Paul informs him just before they push out the backdoor.

As he does and the fans see that it’s Paul he can hear the chatter rise as they call out asking who it is. But after a few moments where he and Louis wait for Patrick to join them and the car to pull up he hears a few voices saying that something seems wrong. Ducking his head Niall steers Louis out the door and walks quickly into the car ignoring the way the fans start to yell and ask questions of the hotel security that’s keeping them back.

Niall only starts to breathe when they get into the back of the car and are moving. The ride to the hospital feels like it takes forever before he and Louis are bundled out quickly into the cold November air as a few security personal come and greet them. They get Louis into a private exam room and have a doctor come and examine him.

“Good news boys, you aren’t in labor Louis,” he finally says after he’s done with his examination.

“But I’ve been feeling contractions,” Louis states finally having stopped crying.

 “What you were feeling were Braxton Hicks contractions, they’re your body’s way of preparing for labor but aren’t in any way real contractions,” the doctor says.

“It just it felt like when I had my miscarriage, are you sure I’m not in labor at all?”

“I’m positive Mr. Tomlinson; your baby is not in the mood to greet the world just yet. He’s snug as a bug in there.”

“Thank you doctor really,” Niall says when it seems Louis isn’t going to speak again. The man nods before he tells them a nurse will be in soon to give them discharge papers. As soon as he does he gathers Louis in his arms and collapses in relief. “Fuck Lou I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared before,” he whispers.

“Me too, I’m sorry though I woke us up for nothing, most people don’t even notice when they’re having Braxton Hicks contractions,” Louis replies.

“Hey don’t be sorry okay? Something really could’ve been wrong with our little Aedan, it’s better that we come here and find out that nothing is then if something were wrong and we didn’t come,” Niall states moving his hand to Louis’ belly rubbing back and forth and smiles a little when he feels Aedan kick against his hand.

Since he started kicking they’ve taken to finding what can make him do it, singing seems to bring it out the most; Louis told him that the only time he calms down during the shows was when they were answering Twitter questions or giving speeches.

“I know, ugh thank god we get to go back home by the end of the week, I love touring and doing our job but I’ve been so exhausted these last few shows. Can we please just spend our first week home ignoring the world exists?”

“Of course we can love,” Niall replies because they’ve all seen how the last couple weeks of tour have been for Louis.

A nurse comes back with their discharge papers a couple minutes later and they leave the hospital thankfully without fanfare. When they get back to the hotel though it seems the press was alerted to the fact that they were gone and paparazzi swarm as they get out of the car to head back inside. Niall does his best to smile and wave at them but he’s had a long night and he doesn’t want Louis getting too overwhelmed. His phone has been off since before they got to the hospital and when he turns it on it’s to find several voicemails from both of his parents as well as Louis’ mom and younger sister Lottie.

“I’m going to call my mom let her know everything’s okay,” Louis says and Niall nods doing the same for first his mom and then his dad. He decides it’s best to address the issue himself before the media can speculate even more and takes to his Twitter account.

**@Niall_Official: Louis and the baby are ok ! just had bit of a scare wanted to make sure everything was good ! Thanks for all the <3 ! **

“Your mum okay?” Niall asks when Louis comes back into the bedroom.

“Yeah, told me when she was pregnant with me she went to the A&E at least four times because of Braxton Hicks contractions made me feel a bit better.”

“I’m glad, now how about we get some sleep yeah?” Louis nods as Niall strips back down to his boxers and wraps his arms around Louis’ waist so they’re spooning.

Five days later they arrive home with little fanfare and spend the first week back doing just what Louis asked. After the first week though they finish packing up Louis’ flat so he can officially move in with Niall. Before they left for tour they had started the process, mainly boxing up clothes, movies, and other little knick-knacks.

While on tour they worked with Louis’ mom as well as a few of Niall’s cousins that live in London to figure out what furniture from Louis’ flat they would put into storage and what would go to Niall’s. The same was done in reverse for Niall’s own flat, figuring out which items he could put into storage himself or even sell to make space for Louis’ things.

“So how does it feel?” Zayn asks him while the two of lunch at Nando’s after the first week that Louis is officially moved in.

“How does what feel?”

“You know doing the whole domestic thing.”

“Good, a bit odd, but good, I mean it’s not like we haven’t lived with each other before. Been practically living out of each other’s pockets for four years haven’t we?” Niall asks.

“Yeah but that’s on the road, bit different this way isn’t it?”

“Not really, I mean sure we aren’t in a hotel or on the bus but there’s not like any sort of awkward how do I adjust to having this person live with me you know? I already know Lou’s worst habits and he knows mine so we’ve by passed that stage of the living together process.”

“Oh,” Zayn replies picking at his food as he does. It hits Niall then that maybe Zayn might’ve been asking for himself a little bit as well.

“Zayn…are you nervous about living with Perrie?” Niall asks.

“A little yeah, like I mean we practically live with each other already but we still have our own places to go if we need to. But we’re getting married in less than two months and I don’t know what happens if it turns out we don’t co-habitate well or something?”

“Look you love her yeah?”

“Of course I do,” Zayn rushes to say which of course Niall knows that. Anyone who spends five minutes with Zayn when he’s with Perrie can tell how in love he is with her.

“Then don’t worry so much about it, I mean look Lou and I? Aren’t exactly a textbook case of the whole living together thing. Our whole relationship is bit not textbook when you look at it, but that being said just because living together has been pretty easy because we’ve had the practice of it doesn’t mean it always will be. I mean it’s not just going to be Lou and I for long now is it?”

“No, god I’m getting married and you two are having a kid, it’s all a bit nuts isn’t it?”

“Our whole lives since we got put into a band has been a bit nuts Z,” Niall replies taking a bite out of his sandwich.

“True, I guess it’s just one of those moments you know?”

“Yeah I know,” he answers because he does.

They all have these moments at random times when they really realize how crazy their lives are. It’s something that Niall’s always sort of aware of but then some moments come along that take his breath away when he realizes that he’s doing what he loves with people he loves. One Direction has literally given him everything he’s always wanted even if some of it is in a way he never really thought possible.

“Hey babe how was lunch with Zayn?” Louis asks when Niall gets home later. His boyfriend is currently sitting on the living room floor notebook paper spread around him as he leans against the back of the couch with a pillow against his lower back.

“Good, what are you up too?”

“Brainstorming,” Louis answers. When it becomes apparent that Louis isn’t going to continue Niall decides it’s time to needle it out of him.

“For what?” At the question Louis fidgets a little. Niall narrows his eyes because Louis only ever acts like this when he’s nervous about something. “Lou you know you can tell me right? Like whatever it is I’m not going to be upset.”

“So I kind of well I got this idea a while ago and I sort of put some feelers out about it to see if there would be any interest before I said anything and there was interest and I decided to wait until it was a bit more solid to say anything.”

“An idea for what Lou? I’m not exactly following,” Niall inquires.

“For a book…about this whole you know experience,” Louis confesses waving his hand around his midsection. Niall for his part doesn’t really know what to say, he’s not upset about it or anything but he’s not sure where the idea came from. It seems that Louis understands his silence because he continues, “a few weeks ago I went out to lunch with Liam when we were in Boston and there was this teenage guy there and he kept looking over at us right? And Liam was getting a bit testy because really the guy was looking at me so he thought maybe he was a homophobe or something, but then the guy got up and he came over to our table. I was a little worried but then he just he thanked me for being so open and proud about being with you and the pregnancy. I was a little stunned you know but then this guy he goes on and says he’s just found out he’s pregnant and he’s shit scared you know and it was like I saw myself at sixteen all over again. And I just I thought I can do something for all these scared boys like him out there, like I was and I can tell my story about the miscarriage and this pregnancy and it can help others you know?” And Louis is looking at him with his wide blue eyes and Niall he completely understands. He gets why Louis wants to do this, what his motivations are behind it.

“Yeah babe, that sounds like a fantastic idea.”

“Really?”

“Yes really,” Niall replies giving Louis a kiss to show him how much he supports this idea, “now let me see these notes, maybe I can help yeah?”

They spend the rest of the afternoon going over all of Louis’ notes and brainstorming even more what Louis can talk about. Louis explains that he’s got two publishing houses he’s trying to choose between but can’t decide which one. So they talk about what each one is offering for a time frame for when they want drafts of the book and final copies and when they want to release it by.

“I was thinking we could do some shopping for the nursery tomorrow,” Louis says later that night as they relax in the bath together.

“Sounds like a good idea, we should figure out what kind of a theme we want so we can tell Zayn what to paint on the walls,” Niall replies as he massages Louis’ lower back.

“Not a circus theme.”

“Wouldn’t even think it.”

“Good because I’m not giving our son nightmares because he’s got clowns on his walls,” Louis moans out as Niall must hit a particularly good spot with his massage, “dear lord Ni that feels good, my back has been aching all day.”

“Glad to be of service,” Niall chuckles leaning forward to kiss the base of Louis’ neck.

“Magical hands you’ve got, must be all that guitar playing your Daddy does huh Aedan?” Niall smile as Louis addresses their unborn son. They’re both quiet after that relaxing in the heat of the water and the bubbles surrounding them as well.

“What about William?” Niall asks breaking the silence.

“William for what?”

“For the middle name, I mean Aedan is Irish for me so why not William for you?”

“You don’t think that’s too matchy-matchy? Same middle name as one of his dads?”

“Not really it’s not any worse than the people that give their kids the same first name as them.”

“Aedan William Tomlinson-Horan, what do you think about that little guy?” Niall feels Aedan kick against his hands from where he’s wrapped them around Louis’ belly and smiles.

“I think he likes it.”

“Me too,” Louis replies.

The next day is spent in various baby stores trying to find furniture for the nursery as well as bedding and baby clothes. Niall knows that both of their mothers are setting up a baby shower for next month but he knows they won’t get a whole wardrobe of clothing just from that. More than a few times they run into fans as well as the paparazzi but it’s thankfully not that bad of a day in that respect which Niall is thankful for.

Time passes quickly; they visit Mullingar for a week near the end of November before Louis isn’t allowed on planes. It’s not the first time that Niall has had Louis come visit but it’s the first time that they’ve been there since they started dating and since Louis’ been pregnant.

“You two look really happy son,” his dad says the third night that they’re there.

“We are, I really love him Dad,” Niall admits blushing.

“Safe to say he feels the same, looks at you like you hung the moon.”

“I’d hope so since he’s told me he does,” he quips with a smile as his eyes seek out Louis who is entertaining Theo on the other side of the living room.

“Can’t believe you’re gonna be a dad.”

"You and me both didn’t really hit me completely ‘till I felt him kicking for the first time,” Niall admits thinking back to that night onstage.

“Only a few more months.”

“Yeah,” Niall says as his eyes finally meet Louis’ from where he’s been watching him and his boyfriend beams at him motioning him over.

The rest of the visit is spent relaxing and visiting with his friends and family that still live close by. All of which want to touch Louis’ belly which neither he nor Louis are quite happy about. It’s not that he hates when other people touch Louis’ bump but he’s so used to it just being himself or one of the boys that he feels off kilter when someone else does. They both grin in bear it even though Louis bitches about it once they’re alone. Niall even admits that he’s not a fan of it either which earns him quite the blowjob from his boyfriend. Soon enough though they leave Ireland and head back to London and their own flat they call home.

*~*

The weeks leading up to Christmas, as well as his birthday, are relaxing for Louis who is starting to feel like he’s the size of a house. He’s happy that they don’t have anything planned for the band until after Christmas and even then it’s really only a quick guest appearance on the New Year’s Eve telecast in London.

“Happy birthday beautiful,” Niall greets him the morning of his birthday when he makes it into the kitchen after a good ten minutes of trying to get out of bed.

“Thanks babe,” he replies kissing his boyfriend before going to sit at the table where Niall’s setting down a proper fry up.

“So I was thinking since your family is coming over for dinner tonight that I could take you out for lunch at Romano’s, I know how much you love it there.”

“I know it’s my birthday but it’s also Christmas Eve they’re probably all booked you have to call weeks or even months in advance to get a reservation there and babe I’m not trying to sound conceited but not even we can just call up and ask for a table last moment,” Louis replies. Because even though his favorite restaurant sounds amazing since he’s been craving their Fettuccini Alfredo for weeks it’s one of the more popular places in London right now.

“I know it’s why I made a reservation for one o’clock a month ago,” Niall replies with a smirk.

“Seriously? You aren’t fucking with me?”

“Nope,” Louis just pulls Niall’s face down to his own and kisses him with all the enthusiasm he has.

“You are amazing love, truly a godsend,” he says once he’s pulled away.

“I know, now eat your breakfast I’m going to go draw you a bath for after you’re done,” Niall kisses the top of his head before making his way out of the room. Louis watches him go before he turns back to his food and tucks in.

He’s just finishing his eggs when his phone vibrates next to him and he looks to find he has several text messages waiting for him. Most are happy birthday wishes from various friends and family as well as from the rest of the band. Liam’s makes him chuckle as it’s a picture of the younger boy holding up a happy birthday sign and wearing a party hat as his sister Ruth sits next to him looking like she can’t believe she’s related to Liam. His phone vibrates again as he’s answering a text from Zayn asking if he’s got any special birthday plans informing him of a new tweet from @Niall_Official which reads:

 **@Niall_Official: Happy 23 rd birthday to my sexy as ever boyfriend @Louis_Tomlinson love ya babe! ** 

It’s a bit embarrassing how even though Niall already wished him a happy birthday in person and cooked him breakfast and is drawing a bath for him right now how much the stupid tweet makes him smile. He knows half the reason Niall only wrote something on Twitter was because it’s a little expected of him but Louis also knows that Niall did it because he loves doing stupid silly things to show Louis how much he doesn’t care what the world thinks of them.

Being with Niall has really shown him how to really not care what the media says about him or them, just like Niall’s always done. Sure some stories written about them as a band or his family piss him off but where small comments on Twitter or Tumblr or done by people in the media used to bother him now he lets them slide off his back.

“Hi table for two under Horan,” Niall informs the hostess when they get to the restaurant later that afternoon.

Louis is glad that Romano’s has always been discrete with their clientele and do so now as they’re led towards the back to a curved booth that Louis was pretty sure he sat in the last time he came here with his sister Lottie during the UK leg of the tour.

“Your waitress this afternoon will be Maggie and she should be by in the next few minutes to get your drink orders,” she tells them before she turns around to leave as they look over the menu.

“Did I tell you I ran into Mary the other day?” Niall asks after the waitress takes their drink order a few minutes later.

“X-Factor Mary? No how is she?”

“Good, she’s apparently got a part in a play that’s just off West End that’s been getting good reviews. Made sure to let me know I better be taking good care of you and that she’s happy for us, squeezed my cheeks a bunch too was quite bothersome,” he answers as Louis smiles.

“We’ll have to find tickets to her play go and support her,” Louis states just as the waitress comes over with their drinks.

“Do you two know what you’d like to order? Any appetizers to start you off?” she asks.

“I could go for an appetizer what about you Lou?”

“Considering I’m eating for two and one of those has half your genes I’ll go with yes, does the Trio sound good?”

“Is that the one we had when we came with Zayn that one time?”

“Yeah,”

“Sounds perfect, so I guess we’ll have the Trio to start and then I’ll have the Chicken Parmesan with angel hair pasta please,” Niall orders handing the waitress his menu.

“And for you sir?”

“The Fettuccine Alfredo please, but I was wondering could the chef put some of those roasted potatoes in there as well if it’s not too much trouble? We’ll pay the extra cost it’s no problem,” Louis asks.

“I’m sure we can do that for you sir,” she states with a bright smile.

“Thank you sweetie,” he answers turning on a bit of his charm because even though he’s obviously here with his boyfriend and quite pregnant he’s well aware that he’s still Louis Tomlinson of One Direction. She blushes a little and Niall pinches his side when she walks away but he’s smiling so Louis knows he’s not upset at all.

“Did I mention at all that you look fit as fuck today?” Niall whispers and Louis rolls his eyes at his boyfriend.

“Lies, I’m practically the size of a whale Ni,” he retorts.

“A fit whale, one who I think is downright sexy no matter what you look like.”

“You’re cheesy, next you’re going to tell me that I’m glowing, which I certainly don’t need, especially after last week when Harry got drunk at our place and spent hours talking about how I was ‘a beautiful ripened soul who was giving the miracle of life’,” Louis replies as Niall laughs at Louis’ impression of Harry.

“Well it is Harry what do you expect for him to wax poetic about when drunk?”

“Not my pregnant belly that’s for sure.”

“Just a few more months and you won’t have a pregnant belly for Harry to wax poetic about,” Niall replies reaching over to run a hand over the swell of Louis belly.

“We’ll have a baby for him to wax poetic about instead,” Louis chuckles because even though he’s acting a bit annoyed he’s truly not. Harry’s philosophical side is something he adores about the younger lad and it gives an insight into the true Harry that the media likes to ignore while focusing on his ‘player’ status.

They turn the conversation then onto the upcoming football season and bicker about which of their teams will do better. Louis is a bit bummed that he has to sit majority of the next season for the Rovers out due to the baby but he’s just glad they still kept him on contract after he told them the news. Soon enough their appetizer arrives as they pause their conversation to focus on the food in front of them. Niall is telling a story about when he and Sean tried to run away from home when they were kids when Aedan decides to kick Louis right in the bladder.

“You okay?” Niall asks pausing in his story.

“Yeah just need to go to the loo, your son decided to kick me right in the bladder,” Louis replies taking his napkin out of his lap as he moves towards the end of the booth.

“Why is he my son whenever he kicks you in the bladder?”

“Because my son would know better of course,” Louis answers standing up and following the signs to the restroom.

He’s glad for the fact no one else is in there because it’s a bit awkward now to do his business with other men staring at his pregnant belly obviously wondering how he can still pee standing up. After washing his hands he opens the door and leaves the loo only to end up walking into someone else who is walking by. Actually it’s more like his belly knocks into someone first and then the rest of him does.

“Oh I’m sorry are you okay?” the voice is very familiar and makes Louis finally look at who he bumped into only to find Eleanor standing there looking at him.

“Hi,” he says stupidly because this is the first time he’s seen her since he’s known he was pregnant even though they talked briefly over the phone a few hours before the famous Twitcam because he felt she deserved to hear it from him and not some tabloid. “You look good,” he says after a few moments where they just stare at each other. He doesn’t have any romantic feelings for her anymore but it is a bit awkward anyways.

“Thanks, you do too by the way and happy birthday,” she replies.

“Thank you and I’m practically the size of a house no need to lie,” he quips with a smile.

“I would say very round but that works too,” Eleanor banters back, “birthday lunch with Niall?”

“Yeah, what about you?”

“Meeting the parent’s lunch,” she answers.

“It’s getting serious with that guy you told me about then?” he asks.

“Yeah, he passed the ‘my ex-boyfriend is famous and openly bi-sexual and currently pregnant with his boyfriend/band-mates baby’ test so I think he’s a keeper,” she laughs.

“Good but make sure he knows I’ve got some pull and can easily make his life a living hell if he ever hurts you,” he replies.

“But of course, I would expect nothing less of you Lou,” she informs him as he laughs.

“Well I better get back to Niall, despite the fact I’m pregnant with his child I wouldn’t put it past him to start eating my food if I take too long to return.”

“It was nice seeing you Louis, text me sometime and we can all go out okay? I’ve missed you and the rest of the boys,” he returns the sentiment before pulling her into a quick but warm hug and heading back to his table.

“There you are I was wondering if you’d gotten lost,” Niall says with a smile when he returns.

“No I bumped into El when I was leaving the loo, chatted for a couple of minutes,” Louis is thankful that Niall has never been the jealous type and understands that Louis truly does not have any feelings for his ex-girlfriend other than friendly fondness.

“How is she?”

“Good having a meeting the new boyfriend’s parents’ lunch, she said we should all hang out soon.”

“Oh that sounds nice, I want to know her feelings on the new season of Supernatural,” Niall replies as Louis rolls his eyes.

It was a dark time in his life when Eleanor stumbled upon Niall watching Supernatural on Netflix one night during the Up All Night tour. A good portion of the next week was spent with the two huddled over a laptop and yelling and crying when things went wrong, which was basically all the time it seemed on that show.

“Please leave me out of that discussion,” he replies just as their waitress drops off their food.

The rest of lunch goes well and they both wave on the way out when they spot Eleanor with her new boyfriend and his parents. A few pap’s are outside and ask them questions about the baby while they walk towards where they parked the car earlier. When one gets a bit too close to Louis’ belly causing him to stumble slightly Niall pulls him close to his side and shoots him a dirty look.

“Oy he’s pregnant give him a little room please, I don’t want any accidents happening to ‘em,” Niall is never really one to talk back to the pap’s but he understands that Niall really just doesn’t want anything bad to happen to him or Aedan.

Soon enough they reach the car where Niall helps him before going around to the driver’s side and getting in. A few hours later he’s tweeting to some of the fans that he’s seen wish him a happy birthday when an article pops up in his feed reading: **Niall Horan Takes Boyfriend Louis Tomlinson Out For A Birthday Lunch!** It’s linked to one of the gossip sites that they’ve done interviews for before but not many people pay attention too. Louis decides to click on the link anyways seeing no harm in it since the headline doesn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.

_One Direction members, and couple, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson were spotted earlier today having lunch at Romano’s in London to celebrate Tomlinson’s twenty-third birthday. Insiders tell us that the two were talking, laughing, and looking very much in love throughout the meal and that they even snapped a few pics with young fans. The only sour spot it seems came when the twosome were leaving and the pregnant Tomlinson was tripped by accident by a member of the paparazzi trying to get a pic. Thankfully Horan got an arm around his boyfriend before he could fall but he was not pleased by the pap in question and asked the rest to please give them a bit of space. Protective Niall is quite swoon-worthy, pat on the back to Louis for snatching that one up!_

It’s pretty much just a fluff piece, but he’s also glad that they turned Niall’s obvious disdain towards the paparazzi into something positive. Louis understands that the paparazzi are all a part of what he does for a living, but right now he can’t say that they don’t make him feel a bit uneasy. It doesn’t help to dwell on anything of that sort so he closes his laptop and goes to find Niall who has ended up in Aedan’s room where he’s folding up some of the clothes that they’ve received over the past few weeks from friends and family.

“We really should buy him a One Direction one-sie just for a laugh,” he says walking into the room and over to the rocking chair in the corner.

“Harry already gave us one with his face on it,” Niall says holding up a pale blue one-sie that indeed does have Harry’s face on it.

“I almost want to ask why but considering its Harry I’m letting it go.”

“Good idea, although I’m sure it has something to do with wanting to be godfather.”

“Quite single minded on that front isn’t he?”

“Yes, but he’d be a good godfather, I mean not that Liam or Zayn or my brother wouldn’t but Harry just it feels right,” Niall muses and Louis nods silent because it does feel right.

Even though he and Harry aren’t as close as they once were he still adores the younger boy and knows how special Niall and Harry’s bond is. He knows that they should probably pick Greg considering he’s Niall’s brother but for some reason Harry felt like a better pick in this situation.

“You know if we do pick him we’ll never hear the end of it?”

“True but its Harry, we know how much he’ll adore Aedan he’s obsessed with talking to him enough already,” Niall answers as he walks over to the dresser to put the clothes away.

When he’s done he walks over to Louis in the rocking chair and kneels before him. One hand comes up to rub over his bump as he pushes Louis’ sweater up with the other and leans forward to press a kiss to the right of Louis’ belly button, “not long now little Aedan and you’ll be here with me and your Daddy, but please be a little nicer to him with all the kicking, he’s done such a good job making sure you have a nice home in there be awful to repay him like that,” the Irish boy whispers.

“You’re such a sap Ni,” Louis replies as he runs his hand through the dirty blonde locks on Niall’s head.

“You love me though.”

“Yeah I do, now help me up I need to pee and my Mom and sisters should be here soon,” he says holding a hand out as Niall gets up from his position on the floor and helps Louis out of the rocking chair. Louis kisses Niall in thanks before heading to the bathroom his sweater still rucked up around his chest. Aedan kicks against the hand Louis rests on the curve and he looks down and whispers quietly, “soon little guy,” with a smile on his face.

Louis wakes up from a nap eleven days before his due date with a sharp pain in his lower back. Groaning he reaches a hand back to try and massage the pain away as the urge to pee overcomes him as well. The morning was rough with Louis experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions for the majority of it before Niall suggested he take a short nap when they finally seemed to stop. He can hear the sounds of his boyfriend in the kitchen and from the smell of things he’s cooking them something for dinner. After he’s done in the bathroom he walks down the hall and into the kitchen.

“Hey sleepy head how you feeling?”

“Uncomfortable, but a little more refreshed he thankfully decided to sleep while I did for once,” Louis replies as he sinks down on the chair with the cushion Niall bought him for Christmas.

“Are you still feeling the Braxton Hicks?”

“That’s what woke me up, but I had to pee anyways, like always these days,” Louis says as another cramp hits his back, he must wince because Niall takes whatever he’s cooking off the heat on the stove top and walks over.

“Lou are you sure you aren’t in labor?”

“I’m not due for another eleven days Niall.”

“You know Dr. Martin said you could go into labor any day now when we saw her last week,” Niall answers as he plays with Louis hair.

“I think I would know if I was in labor or not Niall,” he snaps before Niall rolls his eyes and goes back to the stove.

“Whatever you say babe,” the younger man replies as Louis grumbles to himself. There’s a medium sized package on the table that he doesn’t remember being there this morning and he reaches forward to pull it towards him.

 

“What’s this?” he asks once he sees that there’s no address written on it but just their names in a familiar handwriting that Louis can’t place.

 

“Perrie stopped by for a few minutes while you were napping to drop it off, said it just came in and that it’s a thank you gift for all our help keeping Zayn sane before the wedding,” Niall replies once he sees what Louis is looking at.

 

“Yeah but what is it?”

 

“Don’t know wanted to wait for you to look at it,” Louis motions to the package silently and Niall nods before Louis goes to open it. Once he does he finds an 8x11 picture frame, picture side down, amongst tissue paper, lifting the frame out of the package he flips it over and smiles at the image before him.

 

“We look good,” Niall states behind him as Louis slaps his hand not taking his eyes off the picture.

The image is of Niall and himself from during Zayn and Perrie’s wedding reception earlier that month. It was taken towards the end of the night so the fairy and tea lights that were strung up and lit around the tent the reception was held in gave the world a slightly ethereal glow. In the center of the picture though are Louis and Niall as they sit on the edge of the stage, Louis’ is sitting with his legs in Niall’s lap as he leans against the side of an amp; while one of Niall’s hands grips his where they lay on his round belly and the other rests on his legs as they stare at each other large smiles on their faces.

“I’ll have to thank Perrie next time we see her and also ask who their photographer was because this is amazing,” Louis says just before another cramp hits him just after it passes though he feels like some of the pressure in his belly has lifted just as a wetness seeps into his sweatpants.

“Babe are you okay?” Niall asks.

“Ni…I think my water just broke,” he whispers staring up at his boyfriend with wide eyes who stares back at him as they both let the thought sink in.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah fuck Ni...I’m in labor,” Louis breathes out.

“Yeah you are Lou, which means we need to get you to the hospital,” Niall answers with a laugh as he helps Louis stand up.

Everything is a bit of a blur for Louis as they bustle out of the flat and out into a car sent for them by management but every seven minutes or so according to Niall who is timing them he has contractions. Once they arrive at the hospital he’s given a private room as he changes into a paper gown and Dr. Martin comes in to examine him.

“You’re at five centimeter’s Louis already halfway there,” she says once she’s done.

“This kid better want to get here fast because these things are fucking hurting like a bitch,” he grits out just as another contraction rolls through his body.

“I’ll check back with you in an hour to see how you’re doing alright? Now do you still want to do this without the drugs?”

“Yes,” he replies even though he sort of wants to give in. The pain has been increasing the last few contractions he’s had and they’re coming closer together as well but he’s still going to see this through without an epidural.

“How you feeling?” Niall asks after she leaves the room and he’s leaning back against the bed.

“Nervous, excited, ready for him to get out, did you call my mom?”

“Yeah she’s on her way, said she’d pick up my parents from the hotel when she gets here.”

“What about the boys?”

“Yup, was even able to catch Harry before he got on his flight to New York,” Niall tells him as Louis groans this time not in pain but when he remembers what the next day is.

“Oh my god Aedan better get here before midnight because I swear Niall if our son shares a birthday with Harry we will never hear the end of it.”

“Would put to rest on whether or not Harry should be Aedan’s godfather, would be kismet,” Niall says with a laugh as Louis pinches his side.

“You’re not helping you Irish twat,” he replies as another contraction hits him.

That’s how the next few hours pass between the two of them. At some point his mother and Niall’s parents get there as well as Zayn, Liam, and Harry who explains he has a birthday every year but that Aedan will only be born once; so he’s skipping his New York celebration. Louis would feel bad if he wasn’t so focused on the pain coursing through his body every few minutes. It’s just closing in on midnight when Dr. Martin comes in for her fourth visit of the night.

“Alright let’s see what we’ve got going on here shall we Louis?”

“Please tell me I can push I feel like I need to push,” he moans just as she finishes examining him and another contraction passes.

“Then its good news, you’re at ten centimeters, time to get ready to start pushing,” she answers as Louis groans in relief even though he knows that the worst is yet to come.

His hospital room starts to bustle as they get ready for delivery as Dr. Martin tells him what she needs him to do, “alright Louis on your next contraction I want you to bear down and push for ten okay? Listen to what your body tells you and don’t forget to breathe,” Louis nods and looks to his left where Niall has been standing by his side this whole time.

“You ready babe?” Niall asks pushing some of Louis sweaty fringe off his forehead.

“Bit late to back out now isn’t it?” he asks with a weak smile.

“Just squeeze my hand okay? And think our little Aedan will be here soon, although I hate to tell you he’ll be sharing a birthday with Harry,” his boyfriend smiles as Louis chuckles just before Dr. Martin is telling him to get ready to push.

The pain he’s been feeling before this is nothing compared to how he feels as he starts to push. Everything starts to fade away as he follows Dr. Martin’s soothing voice and squeezes Niall’s hand in his the other pushes hair off his forehead after each contraction hits. He doesn’t know how long he’s been pushing by the time Dr. Martin’s voice breaks through and lets him know he’s crowning.

“Just a few more pushes Louis okay?” she lets him know as he nods and gets back to it. Three contractions later he’s still crowning and he feels like he’s going nowhere he falls back on the bed and pants feeling completely exhausted.

“I can’t do it anymore it hurts so bad Ni,” he cries feeling tears pour out of his eyes.

“You’re doing amazing Lou and if I could do this for you I would love, but just think it hurts now but when it’s over our little boy will be here okay? He’s ready to meet his amazing Daddy,” Niall answers stroking the fringe away from Louis eyes again.

He nods tears blurring his vision while Niall kisses his forehead and he leans forward just as the urge to push hits him again. The pain increases dramatically as he does and he vaguely hears Dr. Martin say that the head is out and for Louis not to push until she says too so he can pass the shoulders.

“Alright Louis one more big push and your little boy will be here okay?” he nods as he leans forward and pushes with everything he has and suddenly he feels the pain slip away as the sound of a loud cry reaches his ears.

“Oh my god Lou fuck he’s so beautiful,” Niall says as Louis looks down at the baby that’s just been set in his arms.

Despite the fact that Aedan is still covered in blood and other unmentionables Louis wholeheartedly agrees with Niall’s statement. He’s never felt a love like this before as he gazes down at the still crying face of his newborn son just before Dr. Martin hands Niall a pair of scissors to cut the umbilical cord. A nurse takes Aedan away then so they can weigh him as well as so Louis can pass the placenta.

“Here we go Dads’, a nice healthy eight pounds two ounces,” the nurse says as she hands Aedan back to Louis a few minutes later wrapped in a blanket with a little blue cap on his head.

“Hi there Aedan, I’m your Daddy and this guy he’s your Papa we’ve been waiting to meet you,” he whispers as Aedan stares at him with big blue eyes and wisps of dark brown hair peek out from beneath his cap.

“He’s got your nose,” Niall says after a few minutes of silence as they both just stare down at the bundle in Louis’ arms.

“And your eyes,” he replies looking up at Niall with a smile as the other boy meets him for a long hard kiss.

“We both have blue eyes Lou.”

“Still has your eyes,” Louis answers going back to look at the tiny perfect human in his arms, “now c’mon Papa time to hold your son,” he says holding Aedan out to Niall who takes the newborn cautiously into his arms. When Aedan is settled Louis feels another wave of emotion take over him as he watches Niall hold their son for the very first time.

“Can’t believe he’s finally here,” Niall whispers looking down at their son.

“Me either, feels a bit weird to be honest,” he replies leaning into Niall as one of Aedan’s hands break free from the blanket and Louis slips his pinky in his son’s palm.

“We’re parents Lou how crazy is that?” Niall asks him in wonderment his blue eyes wide as he finally looks from Aedan back at Louis.

“Insane,” he acknowledges still in slight awe that this tiny human is who has been kicking him all these months, “but we can do it, no one I’d rather do this with,” he tells Niall who beams at him.

“Same,” the Irish man lets him know as they kiss again and when they pull a part Louis makes grabby hands for his son as Niall chuckles and carefully hands the small bundle over.

Louis knows they need to tell their family and that Aedan will have to go to the nursery soon but for now he’s happy to sit in silence as he and Niall bond with their son for the first time. As Aedan yawns and Niall wraps an arm around his shoulders and presses a kiss to his forehead there is nowhere else he’d rather be.

**One Year Later:**

“Where’s my favorite birthday buddy slash godson?” Harry asks as he enters Louis and Niall’s new house for Aedan’s first birthday party. Louis for his part rolls his eyes as he takes the coat that Harry has on and hangs it up with the rest.

“In the living room with Niall and our families,” he answers the curly haired boy as he follows him into the living room and watches as Harry scoops Aedan up in his arms. Louis watches with a fond smile as Aedan’s little giggles and shrieks resound throughout the room before Harry puts him down on the floor in front of the couch where Niall is sitting.

“Happy birthday mate,” Niall says as Louis sits next to him.

“Thanks Niall, your boyfriend just rolled his eyes at me didn’t give me a single birthday wish,” Harry pouts as he folds his long limbs and starts to entertain Aedan.

“I called three hours ago Hazza to wish you a happy birthday while I made Aedan’s breakfast,” he answers.

“You can’t wish me a happy birthday more than once?” Harry pouts as Louis throws one of Aedan’s stuffed animals at him in retaliation.

“What time are Liam, Zayn, and Perrie getting here?”

“Should be anytime now, Liam texted me a half hour ago saying he was on his way to pick those two up,” Niall answers just as Aedan walks over to Louis holding his arms up in a silent plea for his Daddy to pick him up.

Bending down he lifts his son up high above his head as Aedan laughs and squeals in delight. He then migrates to the floor with Aedan sitting in his lap who soon wonders away over to where his youngest sisters Phoebe and Daisy are coloring.

A few minutes later Liam, Zayn, and Perrie all arrive and the rest of the afternoon passes with everyone laughing and talking and entertaining Aedan who is delighted to be the center of attention. They settle down for cake and presents around two, Aedan more interested in the wrapping paper than any of his presents just like at Christmas. Louis’ sister Lottie gives Aedan and Harry matching bucket hats that have **Birthday Buddies** embroidered on them that Harry immediately puts on them both and snaps a picture to tweet out to the fans. It’s soon after that that Aedan grows fussy so Louis takes him into the nursery to put him down for a nap.

Aedan curls up with his favorite stuffed animal, a cow that Niall bought a few weeks after they brought Aedan home after a very long night that left them both exhausted and testy with each other, and falls asleep quite quickly. Louis for his part just stands and gazes down at his son who has turned his world upside down in the best possible ways. This past year has been one of the greatest of Louis life as he’s watched Aedan grow and become his own little person.

Aedan has the Horan disposition and is always laughing and smiling just like his Papa but he’s also got some of the Tomlinson temper when it comes to wanting his way. Then there are moments that Louis sees that are pure Aedan. Every little moment though he adores because even though sometimes it’s hard being a parent the moments when Aedan smiles at him or calls him ‘dada’ as he’s been doing in recent weeks make up for the hard bits.

Louis startles a little when he feels a pair of arms wrap around his waist but he settles back against Niall easily when the other man rests his chin on Louis shoulder. They both stand in silence for a while before Louis breaks it.

“I can’t believe he’s already a year old,” he whispers carefully running a hand through the soft light brown hair on Aedan’s head.

“I know, feels like just yesterday you told me you were pregnant with him,” Niall replies.

“Do you think about having more? I mean when things are a little less hectic?” Louis asks because they have been busy recently.

Throughout the year they were recording the fourth album which was just released at the end of December, while Louis also spent the month of October promoting his book, _More Than One Direction_ throughout both the UK and North America. Niall and Aedan were of course with him but he doesn’t want Aedan to be raised on the road even though they’re going on tour at the end of the month and Aedan’s coming with them.

“More kids?”

“Yeah,” Louis answers as they sway back and forth slightly.

“Of course I think about it.”

“Me too, and I mean I don’t want them to be too far apart in age…” Louis says trailing off a little because he has been thinking more about it recently.

“Lou…are you trying to tell me you’re pregnant again?” Niall asks.

“What no, babe I’m not pregnant trust me. I just think maybe towards the end of tour maybe we can start...you know trying for a sibling.”

“I like that idea,” his boyfriend responds.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, now let’s go join the rest of the adults and help Harry celebrate being 22, I know you’ve been waiting all day to play a certain song by a certain ex-girlfriend of his,” Niall replies and Louis laughs.

“You know me so well,” he turns and kisses Niall once before following him back into the living room but first he gives one last glance to where Aedan is sleeping and he smiles thinking about everything that life still has in store for him and decides that he can’t wait to see what will happen next.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you thought if you've made it this far! And if there's anything else you believe needs to be tagged let me know as well! Come talk to me on [tumblr](http://xothesecondstartotherightxo.tumblr.com/) <3


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